Qantas adds flights to Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane 'Golden Triangle'
By David Flynn, May 25 2012
Qantas is boosting flights on Australia's 'Golden Triangle' market – the set of rich but highly competitive routes linking Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – with 22 new services to be added by August.
There will be 11 additional return flights each week between Sydney and Melbourne from July 9, and another 11 weekly Sydney-Brisbane returns from August 23.
Those flights will add some 400,000 Qantas seats to the east coast corridor, increasing the downward pressure on ticket prices.
As we reported earlier this week, the ongoing Qantas vs Virgin Australia slugfest – plus a Jetstar-Tiger skirmish at the low-cost end of the market – is likely to see airfares fall as extra flights and larger aircraft are wheeled out.
As part of the Red Roo's playbook, Jetstar will add 21 Sydney-Melbourne return services per week from August 16, and seven Sydney-Adelaide returns from November 15.
Next year will see some serious JQ love for the Gold Coast with a total of 14 weekly return flights from Sydney, Adelaide and Newcastle to the Gold Coast starting in April 2013.
"The additional capacity reflects the Qantas Group’s commitment to ensure our customers have the greatest choice, flexibility and product offering across a strong domestic network," said Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. "We know that network and frequency are vital to customer satisfaction."
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
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This could mean more empty seats on planes. I wonder what Virgin might be doing? Lower fares, more flights?
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