Qantas doesn't plan to let V Australia steal away its customers when Richard Branson's newest airline takes flight December 15. So the old-line Aussie carrier is hyping some great fares on its A380 flights between LA and both Melbourne and Sydney.
Qantas says it's selling tickets for as little as $380 round-trip on flights departing between November 2 and December 8. But as far as we can tell, those super-cheap tickets are already gone.
We did find an LAX-Melbourne round trip in November for $1,215. Not less than 400 bucks, but that's certainly not bad! If you're willing to spend a bit more, A380 service between the US and Oz starts on October 20.
Last week we asked, "Is V Australia about to officially announce LAX-SYD service at a press conference?" Turns out, yes. The newest carrier from Richard Branson will go wheels up on December 15, 2008.
The super-cheap promo fares for the first few days are already sold out, but you can still get some incredible deals in December. We found a round trip for $1,747, while Kayak reports the cheapest non-stop Qantas fare for the same dates is $2,582.
In addition to great fares, V Australia has also released cabin details. In coach, seat pitch is 32 inches with a recline of 6 inches, and every seat will have a 9-inch screen for on-demand in-flight entertainment. And if you need or want to stay online, the airline's 777s will have cell phone connectivity, letting you SMS and browse the Internet on your GSM device. What, no in-flight WiFi?
Is V Australia about to officially announce LAX-SYD service at a press conference? That is the likeliest first route--or perhaps SFO-SYD--for the international arm of Australia's Virgin Blue Airlines.
We hear there's an "event" happening in Los Angeles this Monday, 3/31. Let's say this is the big shebang and we get an official ticket sale date and launch date (probably early fall '08) for LAX-SYD...will they give us cabin details? And more importantly, PRICING? Where do you think V Australia is going with these details?
We say: hopefully, as far as pricing goes, to the sub-$1000 (round-trip) sweet spot...sweet spot for flights between the U.S. and Australia, that is. Oh, the soothing lullaby of skies opening up...
Serial publicity hound Richard Branson is headed Down Under later this month to reveal the details on Virgin's latest airline, V Australia.
The start-up is a spin off of Virgin Blue, set to challenge Qantas on flights between Oz and the US before the end of 2008. Interestingly, Branson's visit is timed to coincide with the opening of London Heathrow's Terminal 5--the new home of Virgin rival British Airways.
We're guessing RB won't be taking Kendra Wilkinson along on his trip south, but he won't be hyping V Australia all alone. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes will be in Melbourne too, talking up his new routes to Malaysia.
Now that Australia and the United States have opened up competition on transpacific routes, V Australia needs some people to actually, you know, fly the planes.
The airline's ordered seven new 777s to fly its initial 10 weekly flights between LAX and Sydney, and it's searching for 280 flight attendants and 100 pilots to join the small team it's already hired. Flights are set to begin in November 2008.
Not content to let V Australia grab all the talent, Qantas hopes to hire 2,000 long-haul flight attendants in the next couple of years. The carrier is offering up a special bonus, too: the chance to work on an A380, which it hopes to have flying between Australia and the US by this summer.
The United States and Australia just finalized a deal to make flying between the two countries easier--and maybe cheaper. The Sydney-LAX route that's been in Qantas' back pocket for all these years will be open to competition, much to the thrill of V Australia, the Virgin Blue offshoot.
Of course not everyone's happy. Singapore Airlines got locked out of the newly open market because the agreement will only allow US and Aussie carriers access. (That was a move to keep the Australian flag carrier happy despite the increased competition it would face.)
Now that everything's official, it's time to start watching the newly open skies. Qantas is hoping to start A380 service on the route and has already announced plans to add more frequency. V Australia will fly 777s when it begins service. No other airlines have announced new transpacific routes, but it's possible we'll hear something soon. As long as it's from an American carrier, that is.
If you've ever flown direct from Los Angeles to Sydney, the chances are pretty high that you've been aboard a Qantas flight. The Aussie airline handles 80 percent of traffic on the route thanks to an agreement that restricts other airlines to four or fewer flights per week. But that might soon change, if talks between the US and Australian governments work out as predicted.
Qantas is finally letting other airlines onto its near-monopoly route--as long as a deal keeps close rival Singapore Airlines out of the game. The less scary Virgin Blue looks like the most likely newcomer. The carrier's long haul arm, V Australia, hopes to have 10 flights a week on the LA to Sydney route. Here's hoping V Australia can bring us V low prices.
At least 10 airline start-ups are coming to Asia and the Pacific this year, including a few low-cost carriers. The geeks at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) say that the new carriers and routes stem from an influx of foreign travelers to the regions, and the potential Australia-United States open skies agreement has to be helping. That has us psyched: More choices and new hubs mean more competitive pricing.
So what new airlines are we waiting for? There will be at least five joint-venture airlines (such as Indonesia's Lion Air and Australia's SkyAirWorld) and low-cost carriers adding international routes (like a subsidiary from ANA). Start-ups include Virgin's V Australia and New Zealand's Kiwijet. Some of the new airlines and routes include larger capacity planes; no one will be flying any 787s anytime soon.
According to The Australian, CAPA says:
The next few weeks will provide a much cleared picture of [what's next]. Meanwhile, airline managements are growing increasingly nervous.
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