Qantas CEO keen to restart Perth-Auckland flights
The direct flights would offer travellers easy connections to Qantas’ non-stop flights to New York, London and Europe.
By David Flynn, August 15 2024
Qantas is putting Perth-Auckland back on its radar as the airline sharpens its focus on New Zealand, with the route potentially connecting passengers all the way through to the USA and Europe.
Speaking with Executive Traveller in Perth, ahead of the airline’s recent launch of direct flights between Perth and Paris, Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said she’d “love to see Perth-Auckland because it will connect to our New York flights.”
And with those New York flights increasing to almost-daily from October 10, there’s even more scope to lure Kiwis away from Air New Zealand, which has its own Auckland-New York flights pegged to just three times a week and still relying on a vastly inferior business class.
Qantas once connected Perth and Auckland on a seasonal basis, with an Airbus A330 taking on the six-hour journey; the route is now flown all year round exclusively by Air New Zealand on a modern Boeing 787.
Hudson suggested Perth-Auckland could ideally return with a red-tailed Dreamliner, although as with everything else, it all comes down to the availability of aircraft – which will be less of an issue once two more A380 superjumbos fly back into service “at the beginning of next year.”
“You deploy the A380s onto routes that have 787s, and then you re-deploy the 787s,” Hudson said.
Whatever aircraft takes on Perth-Auckland, Qantas stands to benefit from connecting travellers flying in both directions.
Perth residents could choose Qantas for trips to Auckland as well as flying onwards to New York.
At the same time, Kiwis could catch the Qantas flight from Auckland to Perth to join Qantas’ non-stop flights to London, Paris and Rome.
“We’re thinking all the time about how do we make sure that we get the right connections that maximise the advantage that we’ve got with our domestic network and then how we feed that onto international,” Hudson said.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
14 Jun 2017
Total posts 47
Wouldn’t it be way, way faster for kiwis to fly to Europe via Canada/USA?
Jetstar Airways - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 May 2018
Total posts 20
With Qantas going 6 x weekly on flights to New York, and looking into flying to Chicago, would a B789 flying PER-MEL-AKL-ORD be too way off the mark for QF HQ (in addition to PER-AKL). I know the original plan pre pandemic was to start ORD flights from BNE, but if the SYD-AKL-JFK flights are such a hit in NZ, then surely adding ORD via AKL will only build upon that. I'm sure it would be a win-win-win for people in Perth, Melbourne and Auckland to fly in a B789 rather than a B737 or A330.
30 May 2014
Total posts 16
With the timings of Perth-Europe and JFK I can't see how they can maximise connections to cover both effectively.
The longhaul sectors would be difficult to retime/align beyond an hour or two due to them originating in SYD.
The timings just don't work and are not ideal.
Approx timings for European connections:
To connect with Europe Leave AKL 1230-1430 arrive PER 1600-1800. JFK arrives AKL at 0500
To connect from Europe Leave PER 1200-1400 arrive AKL 2200-Midnight. JFK departs AKL at 1605
Approx timings for JFK Connections:
Depart AKL 0630-0830 arrive PER 1000-1200
Depart PER approx 0400 arrive AKL approx 1400.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Sep 2012
Total posts 233
I'm not sure Kiwi passengers would be that lured to shift to QF's Perth hub for Europe flights when you have SQ, EK, QR, CX and plenty of competitors offering competitive/superior products with more frequencies and destinations to Europe, unless QF drops their fares/rewards requirements and we know that ain't happening anytime soon.
03 Mar 2023
Total posts 32
I tend to agree. QF's Perth hub is very unappealing to me even from Brisbane. I'll continue to go via Hong Kong or Doha.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Aug 2015
Total posts 10
By my maths it would have to give or take leave Perth around 4am, arrive AKL around 2pm to connect to the 4pm Departure for New York
QFF
19 Sep 2013
Total posts 205
Still think Cathay from Perth to New York is a better option.
05 Mar 2015
Total posts 412
Great to see Qantas actively looking into more routes, but while Perth sounds smart for Kiwis to fly AKL-PER and then onto UK/UE, I think they'd be much more likely to fly with SQ as a Star Alliance partner via Singapore and get all their points and perks, or even with Air New Zealand to HKG and then onwards with Cathay Pacific. Both are 'one-stop' options to the UK and Europe, and they put a lot more cities on the map compared to Qantas which has just one in the UK (London) and Paris as year-round plus Rome as a seasonal service.
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