Shorter is better

Qantas’s 7,454nm Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth route will now take up the mantle, flown by its six 747-400ERs, the airline being the sole passenger operator of the type.

The quest for speed and long range drove several unique types. Speed proponents bred the sleek Convair 990, an economic disaster, but capable of 535KTAS (990km/h), but the aircraft offered hopeless range/payload. Flying higher to go further bred the 747SP in 1975. Capable of 8,300nm, Qantas and Pan Am operated them nonstop from the US West Coast to Sydney cruising at 45,000ft at around 480KTAS, although making 50,000ft on occasion.

Qantas flew a 747SP nonstop from London to Sydney in 1989, using dense cool fuel. Conversely, one was pressed onto a short Brisbane-Townsville domestic run, operating with only about 20 per cent fuel uplift and made 45,000ft in 70 miles. During the flight the aircraft held more than 530KTAS on cruise and descent, and did an impressive STOL Wellington-style landing for the sake of the crews’ recency. Remembering, of course,the 747SPs were regular operators to Wellington at the time.

But as airport sizes and congestion grew, and traffic density increased, speed was no longer the edge it once was.

Qantas became adept at long-haul operations, particularly on trans-Pacific routes, but with its home base at the end of long routes necessitated unique utilisation patterns and maintenance inspection schedules. To serve Brisbane, for example, sometimes necessitated uneconomical ferry runs between Brisbane and Sydney and indeed that is still the case now. Asian and Gulf operators simply run out-and-back patterns, with their aircraft passing through home bases every 40 hours. For Qantas, it’s nearly 70 hours.

In the ‘90s British Airways introduced a (QF codeshared) 747 service between London and Brisbane. The one-stop service via Singapore proved a winner and offered an eastbound flight of 21 hours and 25 minutes and 22h 50m westbound. But the aircraft lay uneconomically idle at Brisbane for nearly 11 hours each day and BA eventually pulled the service.

The replacement Qantas service with an aircraft change in Singapore for onwards flights to Europe lasted until Qantas quit the Kangaroo Route. Qantas schedules now show two-stop links to London at 25 hours 50 minutes westbound and 26h 55m eastbound, or using Emirates one-stop A380 service, 24h 45m west and 22h 25m east – all of which involve a change of aircraft and considerably longer flight times than the BA service.

Brisbaneites don’t like the longer alternatives, driven by longer routings through busy hubs and for the many who live elsewhere in Queensland, a three to four-hourdomestic add-on flight. Brisbane gets up to 11 flights daily to Asian hubs and three to Gulf hubs. All connect to aircraft bound for London and Europe, and some with transfer times at the hubs of between five and 11 hours.

Astoundingly, no hard passenger statistics exist for the former BA Brisbane-London flights, but insiders say maybe 25 per cent now travel to London via Asian and Gulf hubs. So just 300 to 350 passengers a day each way would be a plum market.

A Brisbane-London service operating on a Great Circle route passes directly over Taipei’s terminal – 8,921nm exactly the sum of Brisbane-Taipei and Taipei-London – a navigation oddity. Via Hong Kong it is 8,938nm, Singapore 9,182nm and via Dubai 9,440nm – and one hour longer than via Hong Kong. On present schedules, Singapore Airlines offers 25h 15m/22h 35m and Cathay Pacific 25h 55m/24h10m, west and eastbound respectively.

Can someone offer a same-plane service – perhaps via Hong Kong? Any of today’s big twin-engined aircraft can easily do it – and easier still for the new generation of aircraft.

And 90 minutes is an achievable turnaround. If Qantas or Virgin can’t or won’t, Cathay Pacific, based in the centre of its network should be able to do it free of the maintenance hours constraints faced by Qantas, which is based at one end of its network. Similarly with Singapore Airlines, which should only take 30 minutes longer.

Perhaps an honest distance, time and turnaround-based analysis is needed rather than the endless glossy promotions based on luxury cabins and en route hub delights. Devoid of relevant facts, it is a hard argument to wage.

Brisbane, our third busiest port, predicted to move to number two, appears to many to be getting what suits suppliers not buyers, hence the calls for last century’s fast same-plane, same-seat service that British Airways operated to London.