Qantas is aiming for daily flights between Sydney and Dallas as it chases more business travellers to make the trek to Texas.
The airline says the service is currently averaging 90% capacity, although corporate travellers are only 20% of the total passenger load.
"As we grow the route, and as the corporates start to learn about how great the connections are, that's going to grow further," predicts Qantas NSW regional general manager Peter Collins.
Collins sees the eventual move to a scheduled daily service, the array of connections offered by US partner American Airlines and Dallas' relative proximity to the financial hubs of New York and Chicago as key factors in boosting business travel via Texas, instead of Qantas' primary and better-served west coast hub at Los Angeles.
The route's appeal to business travellers will be increased when the first of Qantas' refitted Boeing 747-400ER aircraft makes its debut on the long 15+ hour leg, expected in late September or early October.
The upgraded jumbos will sport the A380-grade seats, including fully-flat Skybed II seat-beds in business class plus Recaro seats in premium economy.
Despite several diversions and refuelling stops due to strong headwinds on the return leg (which calls for a stop-over in Brisbane), plus instances of baggage being offloaded in Dallas before take-off, Collins described the service as "a successful route" and "a self-perpetuating route” due to the predominance of AA connections for onward flights to other US destinations.
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.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
Interesting seeing the ridiculous routing this flight took the other day... DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-SYD... An unfortunately combination of medical diversion, crew hours and headwinds...
23 Aug 2011
Total posts 1
My family and I were on that August 1 flight. Actually made it quite a distance out over the Pacific before deverting back to LAX to offload the ill passenger. They did not say anything about headwinds being a problem, Just that limitation on crew hours forced the diversion to Auckland. Anyway about 20 hours on the same airplane is a LONG time. But I thought Qantas did a outstanding job in a very difficult situation. The cabin staff was outstanding.
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