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Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has told The Australian that Jetstar would not take over any more routes from the Qantas brand despite the success in turning around losses in the Japanese and domestic New Zealand markets.
“We have decided that, with Qantas, we have gone to a minimum network, a network we can’t drop below,” he told the newspaper in an interview published on October 16.
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“There will be no further replacement of Qantas flights with Jetstar. That’s it.”
Nevertheless, Jetstar is expected to continue its expansion, particularly on medium haul routes as it prepares to take on additional A330-200s, which could allow it to launch one-stop services into southern Europe, particularly to cities such as Rome, Milan and Athens. “With the big Italian and Greek communities here, there is a big visiting-friends-and-relatives market,” said Joyce.
Meanwhile, Joyce said in the interview that Qantas passenger loads were performing better than expected, but “yields are still terrible.”
“Our yield is still bad – it is still over 20 per cent down internationally and in the low teens down domestically, but volumes are better than expected,” he said.
Joyce added that the carrier was looking at reconfiguring its international fleet to increase the number of economy and premium economy seats, and could look at taking out the first class cabin on further routes. “We are still going to be a first class airline – we are absolutely committed to that – but do we need first class everywhere?”
