Thread by @bopinion, Qantas Airways plans to start 20-hour direct flights from Sydney to London [...]

Bloomberg Opinion

bopinion

Qantas Airways plans to start 20-hour direct flights from Sydney to London and New York.

The question isn’t why any passenger would want to be on a plane for that long, but why any carrier would want to offer them https://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

World’s Longest Flights Aren’t Meant for Cattle Class

Qantas’s services from Sydney to London and New York can only be profitable with plenty of passengers flying business.

https://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

Establishing ultra-long-haul routes is no easy task. Qantas is:

Modifying in-flight menus

Lighting patterns

Using its staff as guinea pigs http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

If you fly the roughly 10,500 miles between London and Sydney, and buy a decent bottle of liquor at duty free, the $48 you’ll spend will quite possibly be more than the profit Qantas made on your ticket http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

Qantas’s international unit made just 0.04 Australian cents of profit per seat, per km flown in its last fiscal year.

Jetstar, its budget carrier made twice that, and its domestic unit is five times more profitable http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

Costs are likely to be worse on direct ultra-long-haul flights than on conventional routes.

On a fully-laden jet, fuel will often weigh more than all the passengers and cargo. Breaking the journey and refueling en route keeps costs down http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

Revenue might explain Qantas’ plans:

It will never have the network and operations to compete with the geographic advantages of hub carriers in moving passengers between Australia, Europe and North America http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

Qantas’ aim instead is to tempt more profitable premium passengers away from hub airports with a more direct route. On its Boeing 787-9:

18% of seats are in business class

12% premium economy http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

Qantas’ aim instead is to tempt more profitable premium passengers away from hub airports with a more direct route. On its Boeing 787-9:18% of seats are in business class12% premium economy http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

It’s right to be skeptical that spending 20 hours in economy can be as glamorous as the pre-testing sounds.

The only way airlines can make decent money flying to the far side of the world is by letting business class subsidize the rest of the cabin http://bloom.bg/2BAXbhX

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