Virgin Australia takes aim at Qantas, Cathay Pacific 'monopoly'
By David Flynn, February 28 2018
Virgin Australia continues to muscle in on what its CEO has previously called the near-monopoly of Oneworld airlines Qantas and Cathay Pacific on flights between Australia and Hong Kong, with flights from Sydney on the schedule for mid-2018.
Hong Kong is already one of Sydney's most popular international routes, hosting six daily flights between the Oneworld partners – four from Cathay Pacific and two from Qantas.
However Virgin Australia chief John Borghetti believes there's room for one more player at the table, provided that player brings something different and compelling to the mix.
And that "is very simply our service and our product," Borghetti says.
"There's no question in my mind that we have the best product between Australia and Hong Kong. Now you'd expect me to say that, but you don't have to take my word for it, just ask the passengers who have flown on it (between Melbourne and Hong Kong)."
AusBT review: Virgin Australia business class, Melbourne to Hong Kong
Borghetti also sees the performance of the Melbourne-Hong Kong route, including "the incredible acceptance we’ve had in Melbourne and China markets," as a solid indicator for the success of Sydney.
"I'm very happy with Melbourne... it's been very strongly supported (at both ends), which also gives me confidence that Sydney will be strongly supported."
Another card in Virgin's favour is its alliance with Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express, who Borghetti praises as "phenomenal partners" in bringing passengers through from China.
Mainland China still on the map
And while Borghetti still has his eyes on adding a route to mainland China, he says this will come down to finding room at the busy airports.
"If we call this Greater China, including Hong Kong, it's the art of what's possible, by which I mean access to landing slots."
"We're talking about airports which are very congested – Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and some others that are very difficult to get into... so it's not a lack of desire. As we get (those slots) we will start operating."
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.
23 Oct 2014
Total posts 238
Exactly what I thought on both issues, QF/CX in partnership and landing slots at airports limiting routes opening daily from the start.
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1207
QF and CX are not in partnership. Due to their dominant position on the route, a partnership would never get competition approval. What they have is incumbency which gave them access to the historical slots.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
Given their small fleet size, it only makes sense for VA to have one wide body plane. So something like the A350 that can serve LA and Asian markets makes sense.
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1207
The only way a JV between QF and CX would get approval would be if both airlines ceded a significant number of their slots to competitors such as Virgin or Hong Kong Airlines. This is probably very unlikely and would probably destroy the profits the 2 incumbents currently make on their AU-HKG routes.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
Like I said, I doubt it would happen here... But it does happen.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Jun 2017
Total posts 41
Definitely competition is welcomed, but from the poor reviews I heard on the catering on Y from Mel-HKG from VA's gold members... it's not all about the service. VA needs to step up the catering, hopefully with the new menus they do better.
Using the A330's makes it an interesting competition, a very even hard product, it will be all about the soft product.
17 Feb 2012
Total posts 121
But these A330's are all coming off the East-to-West-Coast flights and being replaced by 737's. So what they gain on one route they loose on another :(
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1207
Both QF and VA have admitted that the heat has come out of trans-continental since the end of the mining boom and there are some A332 services which are more profitably operated by 737s.
23 Oct 2014
Total posts 238
@reeves is correct they have said an A330 presence will always remain on transcon. Not 6 maybe 2-4. Only 2 required for HKG at moment to operate MEL and SYD.
05 May 2016
Total posts 616
If this leads to lower prices for QF it’ll be great. I will probably fly QF still if I go to HKG for the Status Credits. But if/when I reach LTG that may change.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Dec 2016
Total posts 42
Most east - west flyers refuse to fly on anything but the A330 (I am a great example), so if Borghetti wants to maintain this piece of the pie, he'd better start thinking about when he is going to refurb 737's to suit the route.
They need to do more than just new Business class seats, as the economy in the 737's is fine for short haul, but literally not bearable from Brisbane or Sydney to Perth.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
12 Jun 2011
Total posts 148
And yet both QF and VA are reducing A330 service coast to coast. Not like you have an option.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Feb 2018
Total posts 1
Most QF Flights to Melbourne and Sydney from Perth are still with A330 Aircraft, I always select the flights operating with them. Virgin will lose passengers on the east west route as their fares are mostly more expensive, less frequent and largely on 737.
15 Dec 2017
Total posts 4
Sorry Mjudd but I think saying "Most east - west flyers refuse to fly on anything but the A330" is completely false. On the contrary I think the vast majority of flyers barely realise there's different planes with different products running on the same route. Most likely people choose their airfares based on price or their company's travel policy.
23 Mar 2012
Total posts 98
Virgin should be congratulated on negotiating a slot into and out of Hong Kong that is more than acceptable in terms of timing . I truly hope the service exceeds expectations both for the airline and it’s passengers.
28 Feb 2018
Total posts 14
They actually got pretty average slots and swapped them with MELHKG. Given how busy HKIA is it would be very hard to get decent ones.
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
23 May 2013
Total posts 44
Its strange for him to highlight how well MEL-HKG is doing at the same time hes pulling the route back to 5x weekly...
13 May 2016
Total posts 40
What days are they no longer flying
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
07 Dec 2014
Total posts 170
Having flown the Melbourne route, it seems to me that Virgin has taylored the onboard experience so that Chinese passengers are well catered for (e.g. having Hong Kong Airlines staff onboard so there are always Cantonese/Mandarin speakers, all announcement in each language etc.)
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
Whenever I've flown out of HKG on QF there has been dual announcements
16 Nov 2011
Total posts 580
Qantas tailors all it's international flights to suit the destination. On flights to Asia it makes announcements in English and the language of the country it is flying too. And menus are tailored to suit as well. And they have done this for as long as I can remember, my first ever international flight was to Paris in 1999 and safety video and annoucements were in English and French.
06 Dec 2017
Total posts 110
It was QF/CX market for many years.In fact It took the arrival of Ansett from 1994 to 2001 to be one of the first to change that and later Virgin Atlantic extending onwards to Sydney between 2004 and 2014.I would know this as Cathay Pacific is what my old man flew first time around in the seventies SYD/HKG/ AND HKG/MEL home.My brother flies Cathay on the MEL/HKG/MEL sectors these days.I prefer Virgin as the schedules are better for the most part.My ideal plan would be ADL/SYD/HKG EVEN if it means leaving at 6am on the way over or maybe 7am based on daylight savings times but coming home VIA Melbourne on the evening flights arriving in Adelaide mid morning.
30 Aug 2013
Total posts 437
I've flown all 3 carriers in J on the MEL-HKG route and thought while all 3 were excellent, VA was the best as the seat is better than QF, as good as CX and the food and service slightly better than both QF and CX.
11 Nov 2017
Total posts 8
We've just booked MEL HKG on VA J for both price and easily the best scheduling times.
20 Sep 2017
Total posts 9
This discussion is mainly about the Australia HK route and the dominance of CX and QF. On our last flight to Hong Kong we were delayed and had a very tight connection and asked the crew about getting off quickly. We were told over 90% of the passengers on our flight were connecting to other flights. They said most people were going on to China, India and Europe.
If you look at the flights from Australia to China they are dominated by the mainland based airlines. SQ is the dominate airline to India and so on.
My point is that Virgin wants to fly to the most popular destinations out of Australia and HK was chosen not as a destination but as hub so they can get the best leverage out of their relationship with the HNA Group .
06 Dec 2017
Total posts 110
you have to remember there are people who are velocity members too who fly VA.Cathay Pacific is not an option for them and Singapore Airlines over Singapore unless one is flying from Adelaide or Perth is too far a detour for many of us.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Aug 2014
Total posts 213
HKG is practically a oneworld fortress hub...
Good luck, Borghetti. You're gonna need it.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2017
Total posts 348
VA are only flying the route because CX's competitor HX cannot fly here due to the bilaterals being full. It is basically a VA/HX JV. In addition HX's owner (HNA) also has stake in VA.
VA wouldn't be flying the HKG route otherwise without the JV.
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