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Back in December Qantas gave an indication that it would be reducing the amount of flying that it planned to do to/from the US for the Northern hemisphere winter, so we already had a heads up that there would be cuts on the routes between Australia and the US.
The latest schedules, however, show that the cuts to capacity are going to be slightly deeper than we first thought.
The Sydney – New York JFK route (via Auckland)
Originally, this plan for this route was for it to operate 7x/week from 13 August 2024 (up from 4x/week), but in December 2023, Qantas pulled two of the weekly flights leaving the plan with 5 weekly flights.
The latest schedules now show that the fifth weekly flight won’t be happening as planned and between 14 August and 9 October the route will continue to offer just 4 weekly flights.
QF003 SYD 09:05 – 14:15 AKL 1615 – 16:30 JFK (Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun)
QF004 JFK 19:30 – 05:00+2 days AKL 07:00+2 day – 08:35+2 days SYD (Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun)
In a bit of good news, as of 10 October 2024, Qantas says that it will add two more flights to this route taking the schedule up to 6 weekly flights. That’s still not as good as the 7 weekly flights that were first expected, but it’s better than four.
The Melbourne – Los Angeles route
Originally, this plan for this route was for it to operate 7x/week in the 2024 Northern hemisphere winter (down from 9x/week), but to have an A380 operating the route 6x/week instead of 2x/week to make up for the drop in flights.
In December, there were suspicions that the increase in A380 service may not materialize, and the latest schedules published by Qantas now confirm this.
The schedule for the Melbourne – Los Angeles route will now look like this from 14 July 2024 …
QF093 MEL 11:30 – 08:50 LAX
QF094 LAX 23:40 – 08:30+2 days MEL
…with the A380 only operating on Mondays and Saturdays out of Melbourne and on Thursdays and Saturdays out of LAX.
The Sydney – Los Angeles route
Originally, this plan for this route was for it to operate 9x/week in the 2024 Northern hemisphere winter (up from 8x/week), but in December 2023, we were told that as of 12 July 20024, only a daily A380 service would be offered.
QF011 SYD 17:15 – 14:00 LAX (Daily)
QF012 LAX 22:30 – 06:35+2 days SYD (Daily)
The latest schedules now confirm that this route will only be offered 7x/week but the drop to a daily service will now come from 18 July 2024.
Bottom line
Qantas’ capacity between Australia and the US will be considerably lower than planned for sections of the 2024 Northern hemisphere summer and it will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward into the Northern hemisphere winter.
I have no idea if this is down to a lack of aircraft or down to demand issues, but with American Airlines pressing ahead with its new service to Brisbane, it seems that a lack of aircraft is the more likely reason. Perhaps Qantas is now regretting scrapping two of its A380s last year?
[HT: Aeroroutes]
