Where do you see QF having new routes to in the future- Im sure PEK would be a great option.

Where do you see QF having new routes to in the future- Im sure PEK would be a great option... thoughts?

Sydney to Bairnsdale.

LOL! +1

Oh dear. It appears that this isn't as popular a route as I thought from the comfort of my armchair.

Sydney to Ballarat, maybe?

Some people cannot get sarcasm :-)))

If the 787s do come, I see them going to PEK, I think it's a great route and there's certainly demand for that route. In North America, where Joyce said a lot of growth is happening, I would like to see a return to San Francisco and maybe a new Melbourne-Dallas service.

In Europe I think a great one would be to return back to Frankfurt, and start a service to Paris maybe also destinations such as Rome and Barcelona/Madrid.

In South America a service to Rio of Sao Paulo would be good although it would have to be all direct traffic as oppose to SCL where you can swap and go anywhere in South America.

I think there's a high chance of an ADL-SIN route and some from Perth as well.

In Asia, cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Seoul, Osaka and Guangzhou. Also a service from Melbourne to Tokyo would be nice.

I missed some suggestions but I think these are the best options, mostly all are non-stop destinations. If you disaree, please let me know.

I'd agree with Asia and North America, but I think growth to Europe and South America is not going to be as feasible. Firstly the trek from Sydney to Santiago is nearly 15 hours, plus if Santiago is going to be used as stop over then it's an extra 1.5 hour stopover before another 2-3 hours flight to Brazil. If B787 is going to be utilisied there will need a lot of equipment and frequency to make it work, therefore the demand has to be there. 

Secondly Europe isn't doing as well with the global economy and the Europe-Asia market is already near saturation with the likes of the Gulf carriers and the Asian carriers taking the market share. If there was strong demand between mainland Europe and Australia we would already see Air France or Lufthansa recommencing services back to Australia. Keep in mind the B787 isn't a magic aircraft that can fly you everywhere, otherwise it would already be the best selling aircraft in history. 

At the top of my list, it would be Sydney-San Francisco and Melbourne-Dallas by a long way. The North American market (just as AJ says) has a lot of profitable growth happening.

PEK is a bit north, but sure it is a great route to try. A lack of partnerships might be a problem (Air New Zealand failed the route even with partnerships in 2012). Air New Zealand chose to consolidate into Shanghai, but I think the partnership with China Eastern (and maybe they could forge one with China Southern) would be good for the near future.

Flying to Brazil is a good idea, but since Air New Zealand is launching South American services, Qantas' yields could be depressed on Sydney-Santiago and the region.

Europe is essentially covered in the Emirates Alliance, but nevertheless they could launch it (and Emirates could even feed into Qantas' planes). However the A380 is too big. Flying Singapore-Europe and Dubai-Europe is a question mark - but it would generate feed to fill Australia-Singapore planes better, and ADL-SIN would then become viable.

Japan is essentially covered through Japan Airlines, but if there is demand for Osaka then why not?

Seoul currently has quite some competition and entering the market would generate overcapacity - maybe a future consideration though.

India has quite some demand but Air India seems to be failing on its Australian flights. If Qantas does launch a flight to India it could take a lot of traffic off Asian carriers currently carrying the feed. Lack of partnerships is also a problem.

Qantas could also do with some more frequencies into Vancouver. I think Johannesburg needs some frequency reductions however.

Overall, Qantas is in good shape and managing profitable growth will follow its transformation program.

Here are some suggestions:

Would be good if they (re-)introduced AKL-ADL service.

Also direct west-coast to west-coast PER-LAX service 

Also the MEL - AKL - LAX 

JQ provided ADL - AKL for a while, but maybe there wasn't a real high demand for the flight, thats why it got stopped.

(Air) NZ flies ADL - AKL and even then only 5 or 6 days a week, I don't remember the flight being totally full when I did it once in 2012/2013.

New QF routes will most likely come with the Boeing 787s. The A380s are all working at capacity, the 747s are all spoken for too, and anyway are more likely to be retired than anything else. Maybe some of the extra A330s they are getting from Jetstar might see new routes into Asia, like for example we've already seen with Brisbane-Narita. But the 787s will be what opens up the Qantas network.

The A330s that are coming back from JQ are to cover the pre 2018 747 retirements (ie, remaining Asia 747 flights going to A330 sooner or later).

The 9 refit 747s (the 6 ERs and 3 newest -400s) are due to be replaced by the remaining 8 A380s coming after 2018.

The BNE-NRT flight is due in some part to the requirement of maintaining NRT service when serving HND long haul.

Should the 787 options be confirmed, I would expect the first 10 or so to be used to replace some 747s and older A330s. After that, I'd see new routes into Asia, secondary West Coast North America (SFO, PHX, MEL/BNE-DFW, ORD) and some larger EU ports (FRA/BER, CDG, FCO), but we're looking at the early 2020s for that.

EK has used all their rights into Germany. They'd like for QF to use AU rights into Germany ex DXB. Maybe BNE or PER-DXB-FRA or BER with 787s.

This one might be a bit left-field, but I think they should upgauge SCL to a daily flight and run a fifth freedom route between LAX and SCL.  At the moment, the flights to LA arrive in the early morning and don't depart until close to 11pm - midnight.  If they followed a similar schedule in SCL (i.e. midday departure from Sydney and late-night departure from SCL) they could run a triangle route SYD - LAX - SCL - SYD and vice versa without losing any additional aircraft for the LAX - SCL market. 

Currently there are no nonstop flights between the two cities (LAN stops in Peru), and both SCL and LAX are Oneworld hubs.

Australia doesn't have the rights needed to do that sort of thing. Would need approval from AU, US and Chile. 5th freedoms out of US is no problem. Chile on the other hand...

QF got rights to 1,119 seats per week on the Chile route in late 2011. They got another 364 seats last year. The Australia-Chile Air services agreement only has 517 seats/week left for Australian carriers to use.

That would be one consideration.   

You could solve the AUS - Chile seat issue by downgauging the aircraft to a future 787, although that would cause issues with doing a triangle route with LAX as I doubt any of the flights to LA could be done with a 787 (maybe the BNE-LAX flight?). 

I still think that their planes spend far too much time on the ground at LA and that a few 5th freedom flights would be a good idea.  I think SCL remains the best candidate economically if they could get the rights.  Other alternatives, maybe LAX - YUL or YYZ (again, Canada is pretty restrictive with their airspace rights).