August 23, 2011
Qantas is promising ‘corporate jet style’ luxury on board its planned full-service Asian airline.
The Australian airline’s new airline is as yet unnamed and will be based in an Asian city as yet unrevealed. The company is talking to other airlines, and potential investors about taking a stake in the new business which bear a different brandname to Qantas.
In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the new planes would feature a “private-jet feel”.
“This will be a top premium product,” he told Bloomberg TV, adding it would be better than the Airbus A380 which has delighted passengers and won an award for its economy seat comfort.
The statement suggests Qantas is intending to try a concept quite different to anything else in the market, because the airline will launch with 11 single-aisle Airbus A320 aircraft. In single class mode for regional low cost carriers, including its Jetstar offshoot, the A320 is configured to carry 180 passengers. If the planned Qantas offshoot is aiming to exceed service levels offered by its A380, it will have at least a business class section – or could even be a full business-class configured carrier, a recent development in the Middle East and something Singapore Airlines offers on a limited number of wide bodied aircraft to the North America.
Qantas appears to be positioning itself to take customers from Singapore Airlines and the Gulf-based carriers Emirates and Etihad.
Joyce confirmed Qantas is considering basing the new airline in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and its planes have the range to reach India, Australia and China.
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“We think here is an opportunity for us to create our own hub,” he told Bloomberg TV. “We will have a lot of traffic and a complementary network in and out of Australia.”
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