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#1 ·
Tuesday September 21, 10:59 AM
Air New Zealand, QANTAS Face Stiff Competition From Asian Rivals

SYDNEY, Sept 21 Asia Pulse - Air New Zealand Ltd and Qantas Airways Ltd face the prospect of intensifying competition on its trans-Tasman route from other airlines now that a proposed alliance between the pair has been blocked, according to analysts.

Air NZ and Qantas were disappointed yesterday when the New Zealand High Court blocked their proposed A$500 million (US$349 million) alliance, under which Qantas would have taken a 22.5 per cent stake in its rival.

Qantas and Air New Zealand have said they would pursue other avenues of cooperation that would not draw the ire of competition regulators.

"Despite Qantas and Air NZ signalling an ongoing intention to examine further opportunities, we expect competition will continue to intensify on the tran-Tasman, as Asian carriers target further market share gains," Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Greg Ward said.

Air NZ's share of trans-Tasman traffic has fallen in the past two years to 32 per cent, from 43 per cent, following the entry of Emirates and Virgin's Pacific Blue, which launched in January.

Qantas has maintained its market share at 39 per cent.

Qantas and Air NZ could form agreements to cooperate on maintenance and back office functions on the route, which is loss-making for both carriers.

"A close relationship with Qantas is a major factor in Air NZ's future as it minimizes the threat from its single most significant competitor," Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Peter Sigley said.

But it was also highly likely that Qantas would turn its energies to Asia and seek an alliance with an Asian carrier, Mr Ward said.

While analysts made no changes to their valuations on either airline, they noted that a consequence of yesterday's decision was the likely conversion of redeemable preference shares held by Qantas into 4.99 per cent of Air NZ ordinary stock.

They also expect Air NZ to announce that it will proceed with a $NZ200m rights issue, $NZ150 million underwritten by the New Zealand Government, following its annual general meeting on October 27.

Goldman Sachs JBWere has assigned Air NZ a short term outperform rating with a target share price of $NZ1.87.

Credit Suisse First Boston rates Ar NZ at outperform, and Qantas at marketweight with 12-month share price targets of $NZ2.40 and $3.41, respectively.

Air NZ and Qantas are expected to await the outcome of their appeal to the Australian Competition Tribunal before moving forward.

The pair are appealing the rejection of any alliance by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last year.

ASIA PULSE

Here are some photos from Down Under posted at HKADB :
維珍仔 Thomas said:
 
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#809 ·

Jetstar chief information officer, Stephen Tame.

Q&A: Jetstar CIO
http://www.cio.com.au/article/398890/q_jetstar_cio/#closeme
Hamish Barwick (CIO)29 August, 2011

What does an average work day involve for you at Jetstar?

Tame: As the fastest growing low-cost carrier in Asia Pacific, comprising four independent airlines businesses, 95 per cent of my time is the management and delivery of the Jetstar business programs and outsourced service suppliers.

A large percentage of this is in developing and mentoring the suppliers to deliver quality and cost outcomes back into the business. The remaining five per cent is allocated to our business and IT innovation programs. This makes the rest of the day’s investments worthwhile.

What are some of the major challenges you face in the role of CIO?

Like every business, my challenges are managing capital, cost and carbon. Depending on what is included, IT represents between two per cent and seven per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions.

The additional challenge I have is to respond to an agile organisation. I am focusing less on building architecture and long-term strategies, and more on the delivery of business agility, creativity, capability and options.

What are some of the major projects you have been working on?

Setting up the core business systems and platforms to scale the Jetstar business franchise.

Further rollout of the Asia Pacific points of presence for voice and data.
Virtualizing the voice/PABX offering.

Designing the PC on a memory card to finally complete virtualization down to the appliance.

What are the three biggest issues facing CIOs today?

Delivering agility, flexibility and commoditisation through leadership and across the IT/business organisation.

What is your favourite gadget?

At this stage, the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia
 
#810 ·
More than 1.2 million passengers fly Jetstar in 2010/11
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1108/S00961/more-than-12-million-passengers-fly-jetstar-in-201011.htm
Monday, 29 August 2011, 12:31 pm
Press Release: Jetstar
29 August 2011

Auckland


More than 1.2 million passengers fly Jetstar

within New Zealand in 2010/11


New figures show the number of people choosing to fly on Jetstar’s domestic New Zealand network increased by 5 per cent during the 2011 financial year.


Jetstar Australia & New Zealand CEO David Hall said the low fares leader carried in excess of 1.23 million passengers between its four New Zealand ports in 2010/11.


“We’re really pleased to see more people taking advantage of our lower fares, which have made it easier to travel around New Zealand,” said Mr Hall.


“The fact we’ve been able to grow our presence in the New Zealand domestic market despite several natural disasters shows the underlying strength of our business.


“It’s a result we intend to build on by keeping our fares low, improving service and fine-tuning our schedules to match the needs and wants of the New Zealand market.”


The airline’s total share of the New Zealand domestic market, bolstered by the introduction of two additional A320 aircraft during 2010/11, is now 20 per cent just two years after start up.


The Jetstar Group as a whole – including its international and Australian domestic operations – carried almost 19 million passengers in 2010/11, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous year. Earnings before tax and interest were up 29% to a record AUD$169 million.


Without the disproportionate number of natural disasters that acutely affected its operations, the Jetstar Group’s earnings would have been $85 million higher.


KEY FACTS – JETSTAR DOMESTIC NZ OPERATIONS IN 2010/11

• Carried 1.23 million passengers

• Flew a total of 960 million available seat kilometres

• Flight capacity an average of 80% full

• Added two A320s to existing NZ fleet (total of 8)

• Launched domestic flights to Dunedin, Jetstar’s 5th domestic port

• Launched NZ’s first low cost long-haul route (Auckland-Singapore) and 4 new trans-tasman routes

Additional information on the Jetstar Group and Qantas Group results available here.
ends
 
#811 ·
Source:http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/qantas-strikes-to-hit-10000-passengers-today/story-e6freuy9-1226180303475
Shock as Qantas chief Alan Joyce grounds airline's domestic and international fleet
Simon Benson and Vanda Carson The Daily Telegraph October 29, 2011 5:02PM

QANTAS has today grounded all its domestic and international flights.

The airline made the announcement at 5pm this evening.

In a shock move, Mr Joyce announced at a news conference just minutes ago that he planned to lock out all workers in dispute with Qantas from 8pm Monday night.

Because of the severity of the measure, the airline was grounding all flights immediately, he said.

Flights in the air would land at their destinations as normal but no other Qantas flight would take off until further notice, Mr Joyce said.

"The airline will be grounded as long as it takes to get a resolution on this.''

Mr Joyce said staff not in dispute with Qantas would not be locked out, but all those unions involved in the dispute would be locked out and would not be paid from 8pm Monday.

Mr Joyce said the lockout would continue until the unions withdrew their "extreme plan" of disruption due to start from from 8pm Monday.

“Qantas is losing $15m a week from strike action – a continuous debt we can’t afford.

“The business is bleeding badly and the grounding of the fleet has been forced directly by the extreme action of unions”

He said the unions were slowly killing Qantas. The number of people expressing intention not to fly Qantas had risen from 5 % to 30 %.

Mr Joyce said a full refund will be available to those affected by the grounding. Affected passengers whose travel has already started will be accommodated in hotels.


You can also change the date of your flight or check travel information here http://t.co/u8ATj91v

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the airline informed the Federal government of its intentions at 2pm this afternoon.

The move follows a protacted pay dispute with the unions.

Mr Joyce warned on Friday that the airline would have no option but to close half its operations and slash tens of thousands of jobs if the industrial action continued.


EARLIER TODAY

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph following an annual general meeting in Sydney yesterday, Mr Joyce said parts of the airline would begin to be shut down if the current dispute with engineers, pilots and ground staff is not resolved.

"If action continues as the unions have promised, we will have no choice but to to shrink the airline bit by bit," he said.

"If it goes for more than a year, we estimate we will have to shut down half of Qantas operations. That's 50 per cent of Qantas, gone.

"It goes without saying that this would have very grave consequences for jobs."

His stark assessment of the financial costs of industrial action now crippling the airline - estimated to be $2 million a day - has put a cloud over at least 17,000 jobs, or almost half the Qantas workforce.

Services and flights would soon start to be wound down, with major disruptions to commercial and tourism travel within Australia and overseas.

Yesterday's AGM, held under tight security and a heavy police presence at the University of NSW, was told that the strike action had already cost Qantas $68 million, on top of the disruption to the public and tourism industry.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday said she was receiving regular briefings on the dispute, but would not say when or if the government would intervene.

Shareholders boo Joyce's $2 million bonus

"I am maintaining regular briefings with the relevant ministers about the Qantas dispute so I am making sure I am continuously informed," she said.

"I believe Australians expect the parties to this dispute to get it fixed."

Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon, who is tipped to win the nomination as the next national Labor Party president in December, said meetings held around the country yesterday endorsed further industrial action if Qantas does not guarantee job security.

The fireworks that were expected to occur did not eventuate at the meeting.

There was a brief 10-minute protest by the Occupy Sydney group before the meeting started at 11am.

Shareholders booed during the meeting when Mr Joyce was awarded a $2 million pay rise.

However, in a vindication of his management of the airline, 98 per cent of shareholders voted in favour of it.

In addition to pay rises, the engineers, pilots and ground staff are protesting at Qantas's plans to restructure the airline with job losses of 1000 and a new non-Qantas branded offshoot to be based in Asia.

The unions claim the restructure amounted to off-shoring pilots, engineers and catering jobs. Qantas management reject this.

Budget offshoot Jetstar's overheads are far lower than those of Qantas. It has cut costs by outsourcing flight crewing, payroll and its call centre to Manilla.

Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association secretary Steve Purvinas warned industrial action could extend until the middle of next year.

Mr Purvinas argued Qantas' call for government intervention was unnecessary because flight cancellations were negligible.

In September, when the entire month was affected by industrial action by engineers, Qantas only cancelled 1.8 per cent of it's flights and Jetstar cancelled 2.1 per cent.

Vice President of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Richard Woodward, said pilots would also be ramping up its industrial action over the coming weeks and months.

Mr Purvinas said the Qantas board was "trying to shift the best part of our airline to Asia. Which is something that I think most Australians despise".

He warned that more "severe action" may need to be taken by his union in coming months.

"The licensed engineers have a number of options up our sleeve (including) stoppages of up to 48 hours," he said.

"At this stage we haven't come to anywhere near that stage but we are of course concerned about government intervention and now with the premiers of NSW and victoria calling for this intervention so that they can save their tourism industry."
 
#812 ·
damn, that's is very significant...:eek:hno: just imagine the immediate as well as the ripple effects it will cause...
 
#813 ·
Source:http://www.smh.com.au/national/virgin-to-the-rescue-for-qantas-passengers-stranded-worldwide-20111029-1mpik.html
Virgin to the rescue for Qantas passengers stranded world-wide
October 29, 2011 - 7:13PM

Rival airlines Virgin Australia says it is bringing in extra staff and planes to accommodate Qantas's stranded passengers all over the world.

Virgin spokeswoman Danielle Keighery said special counters had been set up for passengers stranded by the grounding of Qantas's entire fleet.

"We are pulling together things as quickly as we can," Ms Keighery told reporters at Sydney Airport on Saturday.

"We have dedicated counters, in all the airports around the country we have extra staff coming in at the moment."
Ms Keighery said customers should also visit the Virgin website, which has been especially set up for Qantas passengers wanting to book a seat.

"We will also have special fares for those Qantas people," she said.
"With this industrial action that has been going on in the last week we have announced an additional 40,000 seats in the market over the next number of weeks and months.

"We are obviously now working with all our alliances including Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airlines, Air New Zealand and Delta to see if we can get any extra planes, any extra capacity into the domestic market and also obviously helping those people stranded internationally and abroad.
"That is a real priority for us."

Virgin says it will offer special Stranded Passenger recovery fares for passengers who are currently at a port away from home and hold a Qantas ticket, to return home initially within the next five days.

"These special fares are subject to availability," Ms Keighery said.

She said Virgin had a good relationship with its unions.

"We do have a good relationship with our union, we constantly work with them and our staff and we'll continue to do so," she said.

"Staff engagement is obviously key for us and it's a program we'll continue to work on."
AAP
 
#814 ·
How the Qantas crisis unfolded
Sydney Morning Herald
October 29, 2011

QANTAS engineers began their industrial campaign in August, after Qantas announced a $249million after-tax profit.

They have been joined in their actions by the Transport Workers Union — whose baggage handler and ground staff members are calling for greater job security, better wages and conditions — and the Community and Public Sector Union, whose customs worker members are calling for better pay and conditions.

Here’s how the dispute intensified since the start of the month:
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October 1 The Transport Workers Union warns of rolling strikes until the row over pay and conditions is settled. A day earlier a strike by baggage handlers and ground staff strike affected 8500 passengers on the long weekend. ‘‘If anyone needs to apologise for this, it’s Qantas,’’ says Transport Workers Union official Scott Connolly.

October 10 The engineers’ union schedules a strike, then abruptly calls it off, but only after 40 flights are cancelled and the travel plans of 11,000 passengers are disrupted.

October 13 Ground staff and customs workers strike for four hours. October 14 Aircraft maintenance engineers strike for four hours, causing the cancellation of 17 flights. The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, says that if Qantas and the unions want to end the dispute they should ‘‘get on and do it’’.

October 17 Qantas grounds five planes, bringing the cancellation of 400 flights.

October 20 Aircraft engineers call off strikes and overtime bans for the next three weeks in an attempt to get Qantas to reinstate the grounded planes. The chief executive of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, Jayson Westbury, calls the dispute a "disaster".
October 25 Planned stoppages by the Transport Workers Union for the next two days are called off.

Friday More delays for passengers at international terminals, with about 4000 baggage handlers and ground crew holding stopwork meetings. A hostile Qantas annual general meeting is held in Sydney with tight security.

Yesterday Qantas announces it will lock out all its employees covered by the agreements that are now in dispute, and ground its entire domestic and international fleets indefinitely.
 
#815 ·
Reith blames Labor for Qantas move
October 29, 2011 - 8:18PM
AAP

Former industrial relations minister Peter Reith says Labor is partly to blame for the Qantas industrial dispute that has led to the company grounding its entire fleet.

Qantas on Saturday grounded its entire domestic and international fleets indefinitely and announced a lockout of engineers, pilots and other employees beginning on Monday night.

Mr Reith said the union's "guerilla campaign" had left Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce little choice but to take the dramatic action.
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"He's got to do whatever he can to bring to an end this madness," Mr Reith told Sky News.

"The claims being made by some of these unions are completely unreasonable and I don't think Alan Joyce had any choice."

Mr Reith said Labor legislation had made the industrial dispute possible.

"The Labor government of course bears a lot of responsibility for what's happened.

"They have made it easier for the unions to take strike action."

Mr Reith said he did not know how Fair Work Australia would respond to the crisis because it was increasingly stacked with "union types".
 
#817 ·
Shareholders back Qantas as union dispute deepens
Matt O'sullivan
October 29, 2011

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/s...ute-deepens-20111028-1mobe.html#ixzz1c4pDCb6L

QANTAS chief executive Alan Joyce has traded verbal blows with union heavyweights in one of the most hostile annual meetings this year, leaving any resolution to their damaging standoff even further away.

Despite the open hostility at the Qantas annual general meeting in Sydney, management's strategy to challenge three unions representing long-haul pilots, aircraft engineers and ground crew while it steps up an aggressive expansion into Asia was overwhelmingly endorsed by institutional shareholders.

About 96 per cent of votes were cast in favour of Qantas's executive pay card - which detailed executive pay and was the most contentious item at the meeting - despite unions and the Australian Shareholders' Association campaigning against it.

Mr Joyce's remuneration increased 71 per cent, from $2.92 million in 2009-10 to $5.01 million in 2010-11. He was granted 1.7 million Qantas shares under a long-term incentive plan. The total value of remuneration for the Qantas executives in 2010-11 was $14.44 million, up from $8.91 million in the year before.

As fears deepen that the bitter industrial dispute will escalate dramatically, Qantas has put the cost of it so far at $68 million, and estimates it is losing $15 million a week.

After stopping work for an hour at airports across the country yesterday, thousands of baggage handlers and other ground crew have resolved to intensify their industrial action.

And despite the big end of town's support yesterday, Mr Joyce and the Qantas board were castigated by retail shareholders on issues ranging from executive pay and outsourcing to their overall leadership. Security was unusually tight, with police, security guards, barriers and metal detectors.

Later, Mr Joyce told reporters that Qantas jobs were on the line because of the strikes.

''The situation for us is not sustainable. If this does continue it will cost jobs,'' he said.

In a veiled warning to the government, Mr Joyce said the dispute was not unique to Qantas but was occurring in sectors across the economy.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the situation was getting worse and it was time for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to ''get active''.

''This is happening on the Prime Minister's watch; it's her responsibility and she should do something,'' Mr Abbott said.

But Assistant Treasurer and former union boss Bill Shorten said the dispute was capable of being resolved and the government would not intervene now.

He said state premiers Ted Baillieu and Barry O'Farrell leaking to newspapers a letter to the Prime Minister demanding an intervention showed that they were interested in political grandstanding.

Ms Gillard said she was ''maintaining regular briefings with the relevant ministers about the Qantas dispute, so I'm making sure that I am continuously informed about it. I believe Australians expect the parties to this dispute to … get it fixed.''

Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford said the voting showed that shareholders overwhelmingly supported management, describing the outcome of the meeting as a ''bit of a watershed''.

''There was a lot of talk about how the board was going to be rolled … but that was not the case,'' he said.

Although Qantas was keen for changes to the foreign ownership cap on the airline, Mr Clifford said there was no political appetite on either side of politics for such reform to the Qantas Sale Act.

He also dismissed rumours that private equity firms were circling Qantas, saying it would be difficult for them to raise the necessary funds due to the precarious state of the global markets.

With MICHELLE GRATTAN, RICHARD WILLINGHAM and AAP
 
#818 ·
That is a big step bold for Quantas management to take. Both sides are playing hard ball and politics are being played and it looks like its going to be a lose-lose situation unless the unions and management start working together to the long term survival of the airline. It is such a competitive market and all the goodwill of the Quantas brand is being eroded.

Its a bit like British Airways where despite being British I use them as a last resort for important trips as every year one of the unions will cause major disruption. Like Quantas they pay more than the competition and have staffing levels higher than the competition but service that is far inferior to their competitors. BA have not yet had to resort to a Quantas style lock out as they have most of the slots at Heathrow which helps them stay in profit but with Heathrow at capacity and no chance of runway expansion the European competitors (CDG, Frankfurt and Amsterdam) will erode that profitability and the unions will bring the company to a similar decision point as Quantas.
 
#821 ·
QANTAS - BOEING 787 - PERTH

As Boeing says on its official website the Dreamliner has a range between 7,650 nm (787-800) and 8,500 nm (787-900): http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/787-8prod.html

Qantas ha orders for 15 787-800 and 35 787-900.

These are the maps from Perth International Airport (PER):

7,650 nm: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?R=7650nm@PER
8,500 nm: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?R=8500nm@PER

I think that Qantas could fly directly to Europe without stopping in Singapore Changi (SIN).

Do you think that Perth International Airport will grow in the nearby future thanks to this type of aircraft?
 
#822 ·
Do you think that Perth International Airport will grow in the nearby future thanks to this type of aircraft?
I guess that Qantas will maybe start a new non-stop connection from Perth to LHR once they receive the 787-900, but that's about it. The Perth market with its 1.5 million inhabitants is simply too small to support all that many longhaul connections.
 
#823 ·
Just to note, this thread will be renamed for Australia/Oceania based carriers including that of Qantas, Virgin Australia, and Air New Zealand. Any developments for Australian Airports, please use its respective threads, or open new ones for airport discussion. Thanks!
 
#824 ·
Qantas to deploy A380 on Sydney-HK route
Qantas announced plans to deploy an Airbus A380 aircraft on the Sydney-Hong Kong route from January 15 next year. At the same time, it will also increase frequencies on the sector, operating four return services per week between Hong Kong and Sydney, said the airline's chief executive, Alan Joyce.

This expansion is made possible by two new A380s that the carrier is slated to receive by year end.

The four flights will operate on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Currently, Qantas has one direct return flight on this route on a Boeing B747-400. It also operates one additional direct flight from Hong Kong to Sydney using an A330-300, while other flights between Sydney and Hong Kong go either via Melbourne or Brisbane.

Hong Kong is the carrier’s fourth destination to be served by the A380 after Singapore, London and Los Angeles. The two new superjumbos will also enable Qantas to increase frequencies between Melbourne and London, via Singapore, from six flights per week to a daily service, while flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles will go from a four weekly service to a daily service.

This move will hopefully lift Qantas’ reputation, which has recently been trounced by conflict with its unions (see story here) and technical difficulties (see story here).

For more information, visit www.qantas.com.au

Alisha Haridasani
(Business Traveller, 2011)
 
#825 ·
Jetstar to run 787 Dreamliner on Auckland-Singapore flights



Jetstar is starting to reveal its Boeing 787 Dreamliner routes, with Auckland-Singapore among the first to get the next-gen jetliner in early 2013.

The 11 hour flight is currently made on an Airbus A330, which the airline says will gradually be replaced by Boeing's Dreamliner. Jetstar's Dreamliners will be configured with business and economy class cabins, and later in their lifespan the JQ 787s can be handed down to Qantas for domestic runs in Australia.

Jetstar Group CEO Bruce Buchanan boasts that Jetstar will be "the first airline based in Australasia, and the first low cost carrier in the world," to operate the Boeing 787.

"The 787 is a quantum leap in aircraft technology and passenger comfort," Buchanan enthuses. "It’s been said that the 787 represents the same kind of paradigm shift we saw with the first commercial jetliners in the 1950s and the 747 jumbos in the 1970s."

"The increased fuel economy, longer range and improved cabin experience make the 787 an absolute game-changer for passengers and airlines, so we’re really looking forward to offering it to our New Zealand customers on international flights."

Jetstar has 15 of the base model 787-8 Dreamliners on order, while Qantas has opted for 35 of the stretched 787-9s. Between the two brands this makes for the world’s second largest airline order of the Dreamliner, after the 55 spoken for by launch customer ANA.
First Qantas 787s expected by 2016

Lyell Strambi, Qantas Group Executive for Operations, told Australian Business Traveller that Qantas expects its first 787-9 to arrive “in the 2015 timeframe, so that’s 2015-16”.
“Internationally Jetstar needs the 787 in the short term and Qantas domestic needs it in the long term” Strambi explains, “so in the longer term we have the option to swing the 787-8 back into the domestic space when we retire the A330 fleet.”

For that reason Jetstar’s Dreamliners will be fitted with the same two-class configuration to match Qantas’ domestic needs, so that the Jetstar business class seats formerly known as Star Class will become Qantas domestic business class.

The Qantas 787s will be fitted with business, premium economy and economy class, Strambi says, and will be used for both international and domestic routes. “In the short term domestic is secondary but in the long term it’s a primary role.”

The Dreamliner will also replace the older Boeing 747s, which Qantas has already started to retire from its fleet – with the exception of the most recent models which are being upgraded with A380-style interiors.

“Our long term vision for international is just two aircraft types, the A380 and Boeing 787, although in the interim we’ll use the 747 for quite a few more years yet” Strambi predicts.
(AUSBT, 2011)
 
#826 ·
Air New Zealand trials upgrade auctions – bid for a better seat!

Frequent flyers are used to spending points for upgrades, or even being offered bargain-basement rates at check-in to pay their way into business or first class seats.

But Air New Zealand -- ever the innovators -- have a new option for upgrading: OneUp auctions, where you bid a set amount before your flight for an upgrade to fully flat beds in Business Premier or more room in premium economy Spaceseats.

Air New Zealand's unique Spaceseats are some of the roomiest premium economy seats around. And who doesn't like a purple ottoman beanbag?

OneUp is currently in trial mode, and only on direct bookings to North American cities Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

(On SF and Vancouver routes, you'll find older planes with more conventional premium economy seats rather than the Spaceseats, and you won't find the improvements to Business Premier seen on Air NZ's newest Boeing 777-300ER planes.)

According to an Air NZ spokesperson Australian Business Traveller talked to, it works like this: "Economy and Premium Economy customers are invited to place a bid to upgrade to the next cabin class by nominating the dollar figure they would be prepared to pay. Customers whose bids are successful are advised a couple of days before travel."

Upgrade from economy to fully flat beds in Business Premier or more space in the Premium Economy Spaceseats? Yes please.

There's a coloured status bar that shows how likely you are to succeed in your bid before you click OK.
The status bar indicates the strength of the offer being made. It's green when the offer being made reaches the average level of past successful offers (although it's no guarantee that any bid will be successful). When the bar turns red, it indicates that history shows your bid is "likely to be too low to be successful", Air NZ says.

So how many people will get an email offering a OneUp upgrade? "The number will vary, depending on expected loadings," Air NZ's spokesperson told us.

And you'll need to have booked through Air NZ itself, not Virgin Australia or any of the Kiwi airline's other partners: "Offers can only be made to those passengers that have booked an airfare directly with Air NZ and for whom we hold a valid email address."

If you're an Air NZ Airpoints frequent flyer, don't worry, your existing confirmed recognition upgrades (which used to be called complimentary upgrades) will clear ahead of OneUp upgrades: "OneUp upgrades will occur after Loyalty (Air New Zealand Airpoints) upgrades have been allowed for. Upgrades that would have occurred prior to the OneUp programme will continue to occur," the spokesperson assured us.
(via AUSBT)
 
#827 ·
All eyes on Joyce, Jetstar, HNA and Cathay Pacific

November 25, 2011 – 11:04 am, by Ben Sandilands

There is speculation, and a few hard facts, that all point to an interesting situation arising in Hong Kong in which Qantas may find a way to leverage itself into a Hong Kong or lower Pearl River delta based new Jetstar franchise, and even find an opening for its proposed Asia based narrow body premium minority owned airline.

The hard facts are that Cathay Pacific, which has until now dismissed the utility of setting up its own low cost brand, has seen fit to make public allusions as to the tragically short life that would await a Jetstar franchise based in Hong Kong.

Which suggests it is worried, since if it wasn’t it needn’t say anything.

Also on the public record is the intention of the HNA Group to convert its Hong Kong Express brand into a low cost carrier, which most observers regard it as anyhow, and expand and re-fleet it with Airbus A320s while transferring its small fleet of around eight 737-800s to full service brand Hong Kong Airways.

On 1 September Jetstar group CEO Bruce Buchanan gave this more than interesting address in Sydney which touched on the ‘China opportunity’. It was one of those speeches where the space between the lines was even more important, and Jetstar reminded more than one aviation reporter that this speech needed to be read very carefully in relation to the bigger picture in China, which is where Qantas group CEO, Alan Joyce, is, or was.

He isn’t sharing his diary at the moment.

But he was deeply missed at yesterday evening’s Senate committee hearing into the amendments to the Qantas Sale Act embodied in the Qantas (Still Call Australia Home) bill which Qantas regards as the Kill Jetstar bill.

Asia based contacts have told Plane Talking that HNA is not convinced, so far, by suggestions that a Jetstar branding, or an involvement in any restructuring which might see Qantas contribute money and jets to an Asia based premium carrier, would work for them.

But given reports that Singapore has not embraced the premium carrier project and that Qantas is instead pursuing a Malaysia solution, variously involving Malaysia Airlines or Air Asia, the situation in Hong Kong and in the PRC based HNA group of airlines merits close attention.

Not just in Australia, but also in Singapore, where the inability of Singapore Airlines to engineer its own China solution for tapping into its future potential has been a long running and frustrating spectacle for its business watchers
(via Crikey)
 
#830 ·
Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1176062/1/.html
Jetstar unveils new routes, services
Posted: 11 January 2012 0751 hrs

SINGAPORE: Jetstar on Tuesday announced new routes and services, which would add 8,500 seats weekly for the budget carrier's hub here.

The extra capacity includes more than 40 new weekly services added to destinations in Australia, Japan, Vietnam and China.

Jetstar announced a second daily service on the Singapore-Taipei-Osaka route and three new weekly services between Singapore and Darwin, bringing the weekly flights to 10.

As part of network changes announced Tuesday, Jetstar will suspend services between Singapore and Macau from February 5.

The addition of services on popular routes would be crucial in helping the budget carrier build up a "critical mass" across the Asia-Pacific, said Jetstar Group chief executive Bruce Buchanan.

He added: "The growth in low-fare services from our Singapore hub is creating new travel demand in the region, which then fuels more growth and gives us economies of scale to keep the low fares coming."

While the budget carrier will be focusing on building its Vietnam presence and a new network with Jetstar Japan, Mr Buchanan said the goal is to be the "No 1 low-cost carrier in all of the markets" it operates in.
 
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Source:http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=26329&sec=2
Jetstar to boost presence in Singapore
Karamjit Kaur
The Straits Times
Publication Date : 13-01-2012

Budget airline Jetstar is taking key steps to firmly establish Singapore as its main business and operations hub.

It shifted its information technology centre from Melbourne to Singapore a year ago, and its global sales team will make a similar move in the coming weeks, group chief executive officer Bruce Buchanan said.

Jetstar, which operates three carriers - in Australia, Singapore and Vietnam - is also finalising plans to build its own aircraft hangar at Changi Airport.

Mr Buchanan knows that aircraft engineers, technicians and other industry stakeholders in Australia are not going to be happy with the plans. For some time now, they have been complaining about Jetstar's Asian focus, which they say has resulted in jobs leaving the country.

It is a "sensitive political issue", Mr Buchanan told The Straits Times in an interview yesterday.

And he insisted the airline is still very much committed to Australia, where two-thirds of its total global workforce of about 7,000 people are based.

Citing an example, he said that when the new hangar in Singapore is up and running, possibly by 2014, the airline's current facility in Newcastle, Australia will not close, but will continue to maintain Jetstar's aircraft.

But while Jetstar will remain in Australia, he said, the reality is that Asia is where the growth is - and to cash in on the boom in the aviation industry, Jetstar's centre of gravity must be in the region. "It is a natural evolution," Mr Buchanan said. "We can't be a Western or Australian-centric company if we want to grow and achieve success."

The opportunities in Asia are mind- boggling, he said. In China alone, there are nearly 100 cities which Jetstar could consider as destinations in the next three to five years. Currently, it serves 10 Chinese destinations from its Singapore hub.

Jetstar has big plans in the coming years, Mr Buchanan revealed.

Next year, it will take delivery of its first few Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and while plans have not been confirmed, it is possible that at least one of them could be based in Singapore.

The new hangar planned for Changi will be able to service both single-aisle and wide-bodied aircraft like the Airbus 330 and, eventually, the B-787.

Several options are being considered for the new facility, Mr Buchanan said. Jetstar could decide to build and operate it on its own, or work with a partner - possibly Shaeco, a Singapore subsidiary of a Hong Kong aircraft repair and maintenance firm, or ST Aerospace.

Both firms currently maintain Jetstar's fleet in Singapore.

The airline's decision to firmly plant its flag in Singapore is an important feather in the cap for Singapore's aviation sector, industry watchers said. Mr Buchanan did not say how much will be invested in Singapore in the coming years, but experts reckon it will be more than half a billion dollars, including the cost of the new aircraft to be based here.

The airline currently has about 1,000 employees in Singapore and 20 planes parked at Changi Airport.

Headcount is expected to grow by up to 200 a year over the next few years.

A spokesman for Changi Airport Group, Mr Ivan Tan, said: "We look forward to working with the airline to enhance its hub operations at Changi Airport."
 
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