News & Discussion: Adelaide Airport & Airlines

[electrictechron]

Qatar Airways is opening it's own Premium Lounge on February 13. Except it won't be at the airport, It will be about 6-7km Northwest of the Adelaide airport terminal located at the heart of the fringe, inside the Fringe Club. What an interesting marketing tactic for the airline commencing services in May. Hope this generates some more market share for them

https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/host-a-function

This would only work if passengers left the lounge 40 minutes before the flight's boarding, and that's if the traffic is good. A more ideal location would be the CBD around Victoria Square.

[Brucetiki]

Qatar Airways is opening it's own Premium Lounge on February 13. Except it won't be at the airport, It will be about 6-7km Northwest of the Adelaide airport terminal located at the heart of the fringe, inside the Fringe Club. What an interesting marketing tactic for the airline commencing services in May. Hope this generates some more market share for them

https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/host-a-function

This would only work if passengers left the lounge 40 minutes before the flight's boarding, and that's if the traffic is good. A more ideal location would be the CBD around Victoria Square.

That looks like Qatar have just got the naming rights to a premium part of a Fringe venue, and nothing to do with it's day to day airline operations

[electrictechron]

Qatar Airways is opening it's own Premium Lounge on February 13. Except it won't be at the airport, It will be about 6-7km Northwest of the Adelaide airport terminal located at the heart of the fringe, inside the Fringe Club. What an interesting marketing tactic for the airline commencing services in May. Hope this generates some more market share for them

https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/host-a-function

This would only work if passengers left the lounge 40 minutes before the flight's boarding, and that's if the traffic is good. A more ideal location would be the CBD around Victoria Square.

That looks like Qatar have just got the naming rights to a premium part of a Fringe venue, and nothing to do with it's day to day airline operations

That sounds a whole lot better than a business or first lounge on the other side of town.

[Ho Really]

What do you think our chances are of getting direct flights to Thailand anytime soon?

Would be nice as we are the only major capital city where Thai Airways don't fly to. Chances of then coming here? I would say close to zero for the short term or at least a couple of years away if at all. At present you can get there reasonably quickly even stopping over in Singapore with Singapore Airlines who fly to Bangkok 5 times daily 7 days a week. Malaysia Airlines would also have many flights a day seven days a week. Of course you'd only have one flight a day from Adelaide with SIA and four a week with MAS. You're covered if you belong to Star Alliance and oneworld. If your preference is with Sky Team then Garuda two hops from Melbourne.

it will be interesting if we get any direct Iran flights now that they have their sanctions lifted

Sydney or Melbourne are a remote possibility. Adelaide no way. Their Aussie customers would have to be majority Shi'ite as Sunni Muslims would probably avoid them. The only good thing going for Iran Air is their logo.

What about China southern? There was talk about them ages ago but nothing seems to be happening? Sure the Chinese market is the one we need to crack

You'd think so. Them or China Eastern (China's biggest airline) is what we want. I'd be happy with any of the big four Chinese airlines to come here and quick while the Chinese have an interest in Oz.

Qatar Airways is opening it's own Premium Lounge on February 13. Except it won't be at the airport, It will be about 6-7km Northwest of the Adelaide airport terminal located at the heart of the fringe, inside the Fringe Club. What an interesting marketing tactic for the airline commencing services in May. Hope this generates some more market share for them...

and...

This would only work if passengers left the lounge 40 minutes before the flight's boarding, and that's if the traffic is good. A more ideal location would be the CBD around Victoria Square.

and...

That looks like Qatar have just got the naming rights to a premium part of a Fringe venue, and nothing to do with it's day to day airline operations

and...

That sounds a whole lot better than a business or first lounge on the other side of town.

You guys are having fun...you know it's only a marketing gimmick. Qatar Airways is in direct competition with Emirates. They'll try anything to attract attention away from their rival. Look at all three ME3 airlines (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar) how they sponsor events and sports. It will be interesting to see who QANTAS frequent flyers choose. Qatar Airways is in the same alliance, oneworld, while Emirates is in a partnership. Spoiled for choice I guess if you want to rake up points/mileage. If any of you wish to attain gold status try Qatar Airways. Adelaide residents who book up to May 31 2016 for travel between May 2 and September 30 2016 will earn double Qmiles. Thus fast-tracking your way to Gold. This equates to oneworld Sapphire. I don't fly Qatar so I have no interest in this.

Cheers

[Brucetiki]

That looks like Qatar have just got the naming rights to a premium part of a Fringe venue, and nothing to do with it's day to day airline operations

You guys are having fun...you know it's only a marketing gimmick. Qatar Airways is in direct competition with Emirates. They'll try anything to attract attention away from their rival. Look at all three ME3 airlines (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar) how they sponsor events and sports.

Which is exactly what I said

[OlympusAnt]

Emirates has more A380's

[Stefan P]

Evening all,

Alliance Airlines will takeover Cobham on Adelaide-Moomba and Ballera from March 1st. This will end National Jet/Cobham's alliance with Santos after almost 25 years.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2016/0 ... -contract/

[Ho Really]

Emirates has more A380's

If Emirates deploys an A380 it may kill Qatar's ambition of setting up a foothold in Adelaide. It will be interesting to see what happens. As it stands I'm not sure if Emirates are at capacity. Maybe someone (Stefan perhaps) who knows more of airport operations can fill us in. Straight off the bat Qatar will have a better product (A350-900) compared to Emirate's B777-300ER.

The M3E airlines are abismal when it comes to seating in Economy trying to cram in an extra seat in each row in their B777s compared to their Southeast Asian rivals, but in the case of Qatar's A350 and its 3-3-3 config, Economy pax will definitely give it the thumbs up. Service-wise I'm not sure. It may be hit-and-miss. Price-wise Qatar should be slightly cheaper. The A350 has also an advantage in ambiance and envirnoment compared to the B777.

One thing is for sure Qatar will give Emirates a good run for its money. Travellers headed for Europe and North America (East Coast) will have a choice. Now what we want is more choice to Northeast Asia and the North American West Coast.

Cheers

[Stefan P]

Evening all,

Cathay Pacific will reduce back to 4x a week from 31/3/15. The Thursday (which was the 5th flight) will be dropped.

[Ho Really]

Thanks Stefan. This is a seasonal thing, but it's a real shame to have gone back to four weekly flights. You'd think with all the hype about Chinese tourists we should be retaining or increasing flights to Hong Kong and China instead of cutting back. Would like to know what the figures are on this route. I'll try and find out directly from Cathay Pacific in the next few days if possible.

Cheers

[Dazzeland]

What are the chances of us getting a direct USA flight in the near-mid term? I know the government keeps saying that they are trying to attract a US operator, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

[electrictechron]

What are the chances of us getting a direct USA flight in the near-mid term? I know the government keeps saying that they are trying to attract a US operator, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

I would think they are pretty low since most of them would realise they could make more money on codesharing with Australian airlines. For example, if Delta was to go from KLAX to here they could just put people on the KLAX TO YSSY flight and codeshare with Virgin.

[OlympusAnt]

I would think one that has a relationship with Qantas would do it and it would have to be with the new Airbus A350 XWB. The A380 isn't economical, wouldn't fill up.

I could see American Airlines doing it.

[Ho Really]

What are the chances of us getting a direct USA flight in the near-mid term? I know the government keeps saying that they are trying to attract a US operator, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

I would think they are pretty low since most of them would realise they could make more money on codesharing with Australian airlines. For example, if Delta was to go from KLAX to here they could just put people on the KLAX TO YSSY flight and codeshare with Virgin.

That's exactly what's happening. QANTAS with American as well. There's also Air NZ who codeshares with United and Air Canada. Some tourists come via NZ. Only a trickle though. What we want is the direct flight so that we get North American tourists here and not stopping over in the East. Many after visiting Sydney, Melbourne, GC, Brisbane, the GBR and Uluru are burned out. SA and WA become an afterthought. SA needs to do some hard marketing to attract these tourists now while the Aussie dollar is relatively low. If it goes any lower against the greenback even better, but things have to be done now so we won't miss the boat. It's just as frustrating not hearing any news from China. The longer it takes with them, the more we are going to miss out.

Hawaiian Airlines also brings some tourists to Brissy and Sydney. They codeshare with Virgin but only up to those two cities. If Hawaiian could fit in a couple extra flights it could fly here with a stopover in Brissy. Not the best solution as that becomes two hops to the USA (West Coast and JFK New York).

Cheers

[Ho Really]

Here are some interesting facts about the rapid growth of Chinese Airlines flying to Australia:

● Capacity up 47% to 326,000 seats in Feb 16 vs Feb 15
● China Southern making strong play for Australia market, with 42% share of seats and 43% increase in capacity year-over-year
● Hainan Airlines, Jetstar Airways and Xiamen Airlines joined China-Australia market since last year
● Australia carriers Qantas and Jetstar operate only 7% of seats
● 25 routes operated – 7 added in last 12 months and 3 dropped
● Routes connect 11 airports in China with 7 in Australia

Source: OAG

...and here is a map of the routes:



Australia is represented by Brisbane, Cairns, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. No Adelaide. That really sucks!!!

BTW, Cathay Pacifc is not included as they are not classified as a Chinese Airline. Those cities on mainland China that look like Hong Kong are Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Cheers

P.S. After re-reading my post I realised it says 7 Australian airports but the map only shows 6 cities (the one's mentioned by me.) Avalon in Geelong has no direct flights to China, neither does Alice Springs, Broome, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart or Townsville. I'm miffed. Guess it's an error on their behalf.