JQ considering KUL hub for flights to Europe

[Keith T 2]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...1-23349,00.html

 

Low-cost Jetstar leads the way back to Kuala Lumpur

 

Steve Creedy, Aviation writer | September 10, 2007

 

JETSTAR, the low-cost Qantas subsidiary, yesterday spearheaded the airline group's return to Kuala Lumpur as part of a plan to tackle Malaysia Airlines and AirAsiaX on their home turf.

 

Jetstar will at first fly three times a week into the Malaysian capital, but plans to ramp up the new service to a daily frequency.

 

Qantas is also considering using Kuala Lumpur International Airport as a hub for one-stop flights between Australia and Europe.

 

The arrival there last night of Flight JQ65 from Sydney marked the first time any aircraft from the Qantas group had touched down in KL on a commercial flight since the late 1990s.

 

Jetstar hopes its cost advantages over Qantas mainline will allow it to tap into the 24 per cent growth in demand for Australia to Malaysia flights over the past six years, as well as a renewed interest in inbound tourism.

 

Australian visitors to Malaysia rose 5 per cent last year to 168,000.

 

"It's a strategic decision by the group to use Jetstar's lower costs to enter another market that, in the past, Qantas has operated into with a high-cost vehicle," Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said yesterday. "This is similar to what we've done with Saigon, Phuket and, I guess, with western Japan and Honolulu."

 

Mr Westaway said Kuala Lumpur was a strategic market for Qantas because Malaysia was a top-10 trading partner and the second largest source of tourists from the ASEAN region.

 

"So strategically, we want to look towards a daily, and also we wouldn't rule out looking at KLIA as a potential hub for our two-stage flights to Europe," he said.

 

"It's a good, modern airport and we'll be using the main facility, which allows full connectivity."

 

Jetstar believes its decision to use KLIA will give an advantage over low-cost competitor AirAsiaX, which has announced it will fly from Kuala Lumpur to the Gold Coast and is also looking closely at Avalon in Victoria.

 

Chief executive Alan Joyce said Jetstar had worked closely with Malaysia Airports to develop a "satisfactory commercial agreement".

 

"Our Australia-Malaysia flights, unlike one of our future competitors, will operate into the main international terminals at major gateway airports, offering passengers more comfort, greater convenience and vastly superior connectivity opportunities," he said.

 

The airline is initially flying the route using its 303-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft, configured in two classes.

 

But it will ultimately replace these with new, efficient Boeing 787s after they start joining the fleet next year.

 

A two-month delay in the 787's first flight has raised concerns about delays in deliveries but Mr Westaway yesterday reiterated Jetstar's confidence that the planes would arrive on time.

 

Initially, its international deployment of 787s will be on Japanese routes but it hopes to start flights to Europe as early as 2009.

 

"Markets like Rome and Athens are probably the two at the top of our tree of thought," Mr Westaway said. "And we need to do that through an Asian hub with the 787-8s and there are only a few airports we can look at now.

 

"One of them would be KL, one of them would be Bangkok, maybe Ho Chi Minh City and maybe Singapore.

 

"But we've got to go through the discussions with those airports and wouldn't rule out KL as an Asian hub opportunity."

[Walter Sim 1]

Wohooo!! 787 next year ! Good news for KUL and spotters

 

Maybe bad news for MH ..

[KK Lee 5]

BKK attract more tourists from Europe and Australia and BKK don’t have a long haul LCC like AK-X to compete with, unless MAB can give lots of sweeteners to JQ else I bet my 2 cents on BKK.

 

Either way, MH will be suffered.

 

Edited September 9, 2007 by KK Lee

[KK Lee 5]

Australia's Jetstar makes Singapore its main Asian hub

By Siva Govindasamy

 

Australia's Jetstar has picked Singapore as its key air hub in Asia, basing its largest number of Airbus A320s in the region at the island's Changi Airport and committing itself to introducing long-haul services using Airbus A330s.

 

Jetstar, which has a Singapore-based associate Jetstar Asia, says that it will increase flight frequencies to existing destinations and offer new services out of Singapore under a three-year agreement with the Changi Airport Group

 

"We're committed to growth in Asia and in Singapore," says Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan. "We're able to grow the business aggressively, and can start to evaluate more opportunities."

 

He adds that Singapore is of "high strategic importance to Jetstar and equally of great importance to the Qantas Group". "We want to make sure our competitive situation in this region remains strong and we grow out of here".

 

Changi says that it is committed to helping Jetstar grow and keep its costs low by offering it various incentives under its "Growth Initiative".

 

"By hubbing at Changi, Jetstar will gain from inter-lining opportunities with the many airlines that fly here, including its parent, Qantas, which already uses Changi as an Asia hub," says Lee Seow Hiang, CEO of the Changi Airport Group.

 

Jetstar has eight A320s based in Singapore with Jetstar Asia and has another four aircraft serving the country from Australia. It will add another two in June, and says that it will continue to build the fleet over the coming year. The carrier is due to receive six A330s over the next three years, including three in the last quarter of 2010, but Buchanan declines to say when the first will be based in Singapore.

 

"It all depends on when we get the rights to begin the long-haul flight," he adds. "We're keen on a few services but we must wait to get approval."

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/01/28/337712/australias-jetstar-makes-singapore-its-main-asian-hub.html

[Izanee 0]

what a blow to KLIA. these Qantas guys keep toying with us ... i don't blame them. MH had the chance many years ago to become the founder member of Oneworld but fobbed them off instead

[Kee Hooi Yen 0]

Does it mean less chance for JQ return to KUL, as pax may connect from Australia to KUL via SIN thru 3K ?

[Waiping 12]

I thought since 3K is based in SIN logically JQ should also at least operate from SIN rather than KUL, no?

[Pieter C. 5]

If JQ will make SIN their LCC hub for the Aussie-Europe 'flow', D7 might be having a problem, as many transit now at KUL...

[Wilson Kook 0]

If JQ will make SIN their LCC hub for the Aussie-Europe 'flow', D7 might be having a problem, as many transit now at KUL...

 

Hi Pieter, do you mind explaining a little bit more?

Edited January 29, 2010 by Wilson Kook

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

So the recent 'alliance' with AirAsia is exclude this development. Clearly, JQ wants to send its aircrafts to Europe, not by some sort of codesharing arrangement with D7. Even Uncle Tony once quoted saying, "We will fly to SYD with or without JQ", which to me indicates that their 'alliance' is not to the point of channeling passengers into each other's flights.

[jani 0]

This is a tough blow

 

Who is in-charge of getting airlines to come to KUL, eh?

 

Seems like an interesting job that I'd like to work as in the future

[Pieter C. 5]

Hi Pieter, do you mind explaining a little bit more?

 

A lot of 'rucksack'/lowyield passengers between Australia and Europe do fly now via D7/KUL (via STN)...

If JQ will start to operate this via SIN in the future (with support of QF), no doubt D7 will loose these passengers, as JQ (together with QF) has a far more reaching 'market'...

[KC Sim 2]

Jetstar Airways today confirmed that a pair of Airbus A330-200s (configured with 38 seats in StarClass and 265 seats in economy class) will be based at Singapore Changi Airport for operation to destinations in Northeast Asia and possibly also to European destinations in Italy, France and Germany.

 

The first aircraft will be delivered to Jetstar Airways in Australia in November and will be re-positioned to Singapore in time for the year-end peak travel season in December 2010. The second aircraft is expected to arrive in Singapore in the first quarter of 2011. With these, Jetstar expects to inject 400,000 seats into and out of Changi Airport annually.

 

It is not clear at this stage whether these aircraft will operate using Jetstar Airways' or Jetstar Asia Airways' flightcode - this will depend on the traffic rights being used eventually. The airline is still making final negotiations on traffic rights and slots and expects to announce the destinations within weeks.

 

Jetstar Asia has previously announced that it is committed to establishing a hub in Singapore and in the direction, it has also announced the launch of Singapore-Taipei-Osaka flights on July 5.

 

KC Sim

[flee 5]

This report says it is JetStar Asia: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/05/12/341858/jetstar-asia-to-launch-long-haul-flights-in-end-2010-with-first.html

[alberttky 0]

If the aircraft is going to be based in Singapore, chances are it will be 3K.

[Pieter C. 5]

Interesting to see, they aim to go to Germany too; any destinations known/rumoured ?

[KC Sim 2]

The question whether the A332 flights are operated by 3K or JQ was posed and the answer was clearly : It could be either depending on traffic rights used for the chosen routes.

 

The agreement between SIN and Australia is such that even an Australian registered aircraft could operate flights for an Australian carrier while based in Changi. As such, being

based in Changi Airport itself does not require the aircraft to be SIN-registered. The JQ A320 that currently does a bunch of flights in Southeast Asia right now is testimony to

this.

 

The flightglobal report mentioned 400,000 seats into Singapore. It was clearly mentioned at the media conference that it is 200,000 seats into SIN and another 200,000 seats out of

SIN. As such, it would have been more accurate saying "400,000 seats into and out of SIN" - the exact words used by Ms Chong Phit Lian.

 

Pieter: It will most likely be a secondary city (or at least it will not be FRA). Munich was initially mentioned but Dusseldorf (when it was asked of them) seems to stir a fair

degree of excitement.

 

The above was quoted from the two officials who were at the media conference - Mr Simon Westaway, HD of Corporate Services, Jetstar Airways and Ms Chong Phit Lian, CEO of Jetstar Asia Airways and Valuair.

 

KC Sim

[Kee Hooi Yen 0]

A threat to AK / D7 and KLIA to become a LCC hub, and subsequently MH as well as i don't see MH will gain any benefit from the lost of KLIA as LCC hub status. Malaysia governmnet ought to encourage the growth of the country's aviation, and not putting hurdles in the name of protection (and monopoly). Jetstar has choosen SIN for its hub in Asia over KUL, is protection by Malaysian government to its home airline one of the key factor (eg. not able to get fifth freedom rights from / into KUL ?)

 

JQ doesn't has direct service SYD-SIN & MEL-SYD at the moment, will we expect the service to be soon ? Anyway, the direct SYD-SIN & MEL-SIN service will compete with QF head to head.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Kee Hooi Yen

[KC Sim 2]

Kee Hooi Yen : JQ doesn't has direct service SYD-SIN & MEL-SYD at the moment, will we expect the service to be soon ? Anyway, the direct SYD-SIN & MEL-SIN service will compete with QF head to head.

 

From what I hear, there is a very strong case for a link between SIN and MEL. This was not mentioned during the media conference yesterday but came from my own (very reliable) source.

 

Jetstar has chosen SIN Changi Airport over Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh to develop its hub-and-spoke operation. The number of open skies agreements between Singapore and other countries is a strong reason for this choice but others such as pro-competition and non-protectionistic policies will certainly have played a key role. Jetstar seems very keen to lay her hands on the B787 and I detected a very strong sentiment in Mr Simon Westaway for this aircraft to be quickly deployed to Singapore and Europe.

 

Qantas Group - through its fleet acquisition policies - is ill-equipped to service the many destinations where there is demand. The B747-400s and A380-800s are far to large for many of these destinatios in Europe and the A330-200s and A330-300s are not quite capable of making that flight non-stop from Singapore with a full load. And then there is of course the issue of yield . .. Bangkok would have eased the range issue but yield on flights going through Bangkok is lower and the number of premium class passengers drastically lower too. Not to mention the Bangkok's own political turmoil. The B777-200ER and B777-300ER would have suited Qantas like a set of newly made dentures . . . but in spite of its involvement in the design of the B777, Qantas strangely did not acquire this aircraft.

 

Would be interesting when weeks (or months) from now, Jetstar makes its announcement of destinations for the A330-200s. I would think a major Chinese city that has a strong demand for both premium and leisure travel is a strong contender.

 

KC Sim

[BC Tam 2]

The B777-200ER and B777-300ER would have suited Qantas like a set of newly made dentures . . .

Very interesting analogy - though I would rather have gone along with newly fitted dentures myself

Admittedly airlines do not have luxury of adjusting their hardware to better fit requirements after committing

[Pieter C. 5]

K C,

 

Thanks a lot for the updates !!!

 

It should be interesting to see their 787's at DUS

 

AB wouldn't be too happy, as they're the only airline operating from DUS to Asia (HKT/BKK)...but, more competition will mean lower fares

[KC Sim 2]

Jetstar has just announced the launch dates for flight linking Singapore to Melbourne and Auckland.

 

Non-stop daily flights between Singapore and Melbourne (Tullamarine) will commence on 16 December 2010.

 

JQ7 Dep Melbourne 1200hrs Arr SIN 1650hrs (great for photography)

JQ8 Sep SIN 2050hrs Arr Melbourne 0655hrs (+1)

 

From 17 March 2011, Jetstar Asia Airways will operate daily between Singapore and Auckland.

 

3K 401 Dep SIN 1950hrs Arr AKL 1100hrs (+1)

3K 402 Sep AKL 1220hrs Arr SIN 1800hrs

 

Both services will be operated using the Airbus A330-200.

 

KC Sim

[Peter Smith 1]

Jetstar will announce their first euro destination by years end. A lot of talk, seems to point to former QF ports (ie, Rome, Athens or Paris), initially with A332 (more than likely will be opb 3K)

[KC Sim 2]

Although Rome and Athen were mentioned, it should be noted that the CEO Mr Bruce Buchanan cautioned that the airline needs to watch economic development in Greece. So it is not a given that Athens will feature when Euro-destinations are launched.

 

KC Sim