Ideas regarding the future of aviation to Adelaide

[Aidan]

As bm7500 has requested we don't use the Adelaide Airport & Airline News thread to discuss ideas on what Adelaide Airport could be or a wish list of airlines/aircraft to fly here, I have created this thread for that purpose.

This thread is not for discussing expanding or replacing the airport itself. We already have the Adelaide Airport Visions thread for that.
Nor is it for discussing roads and railways to the airport. That belongs in the Airport Transport Access thread.

[Aidan]

There seems to be a big discrepancy between what benefits the economy most and what benefits the airlines most - or at least what the airlines think benefits them most. At the moment each flight only carries passengers to a single destination, whereas there would be greater economic benefits from serving a string of destinations.

For flights to and from busy airports (operating at near runway capacity) it makes sense to use large aircraft, but at airports such as Adelaide that run far below capacity, the problem is finding sufficient passengers for the planes to be full enough to achieve this. Multistop flights make it easier for two reasons: it combines the load for two or more destinations that could have insufficient demand on their own, and the reduced range requirements mean smaller aircraft can be used.

But at the moment it seems the airlines aren't interested - so is there anything that can be done to induce them?

I've previously suggested granting 8th freedom rights (continuing cabotage) for flights not serving the big four airports, but I wonder if the foreign airlines would even be interested when the Aussie ones aren't.

[mickmat]

continuing cabotage may be a good idea but if we source the right market like japan and china we could fill up aircraft. i know when i came back from malaysia we had a full aircraft. Even Bringing in some lcc's like strategic's new airline air australia would be good because you get direct flights from here to phuket and honululu some of the worlds most popular tourist destinations and if that suceeds it could make other services like thai hawaian and higly unlikely jetstar starting services and besides with the new open skies agreement between tokyo haneda and aus it could mean even flights to japan starting in the next two years.

[Aidan]

continuing cabotage may be a good idea but if we source the right market like japan and china we could fill up aircraft. i know when i came back from malaysia we had a full aircraft. Even Bringing in some lcc's like strategic's new airline air australia would be good because you get direct flights from here to phuket and honululu some of the worlds most popular tourist destinations and if that suceeds it could make other services like thai hawaian and higly unlikely jetstar starting services and besides with the new open skies agreement between tokyo haneda and aus it could mean even flights to japan starting in the next two years.

Is Air Australia really Strategic's LCC? I thought it was just their new name.

Services to Malaysia and Singapore can easily fill up large aircraft because they're on the way to Europe. But Japan isn't on the way to anywhere much. Though some people do fly to Europe via Japan, it's a big detour - and as fuel costs rise, that's likely to make it significantly more expensive. And because it's so much further than Malaysia and Singapore, tickets cost much more, so there's likely to be much less tourist traffic between here and there.

Not is there only not much beyond Japan, there's not much on the way either. No significant Aussie cities are on a direct route, so continuing cabotage is unlikely to help. Indonesia shamefully restricts foreign access to Papua, so stopping there isn't currently an option. About the only place that could be regarded as worth stopping at on the way is Palau.

Most, but not all, of China has somewhere suitable for stopping on the way. And the concentration of population on Australia's East Coast means that it should be easy to find somewhere to stop on the way to the Pacific islands. If QANTAS management were smarter, there'd probably already be ADL-BNE-HNL flights. As it is, we'll probably have to wait for Air Australia.

[Thanial]

Is Air Australia really Strategic's LCC? I thought it was just their new name.

I'm 99.9% certain that Air Australia is Strategic Airlines rebrand, and not an entirely new airline. They're doing it in order to become more recognisable as an Australian airline. I'd love them to come to Adelaide, but I can't see it happening anytime soon...

[mickmat]

Is Air Australia really Strategic's LCC? I thought it was just their new name.

I'm 99.9% certain that Air Australia is Strategic Airlines rebrand, and not an entirely new airline. They're doing it in order to become more recognisable as an Australian airline. I'd love them to come to Adelaide, but I can't see it happening anytime soon...

Yes sorry that's what I meant the re-branding of strategic, but if they want to become more 'recognisable' wouldn't they extend services in Australia?