It will make it easier for people from the east coast to visit the Margaret River region for the annual surf classic and Gourmet Escape.
The thing is, Busselton Airport is still about an hours drive from Margaret River.
The WA state government paid Qantas a massive sum to guarantee this service for a certain amount of time, the local government in the area has also controversially spent millions on constantly upgrading the airport (that only has General Aviation and FIFO service) in the hope of getting a flight like this, or even more ridiculously getting a direct flight from overseas.
As soon as the state government subsidy dries up, this service is pretty much guaranteed to be cancelled.
Agree, I think visitors will be happy enough to go via Perth anyway. It’s not a big enough reason to not want to go there as the flight is 4-5 hours anyway.
You’d still need a rental car to get around once you’re there anyway, may as well get it in Perth.
I feel sorry for her. Hydration is very important on a long haul flight and I think flight attendants need to provide water for passengers when asked. If a water fountain is available on the plane, it should be announced to passengers via the PA system.
I also think the current restrictions on liquids, aerosols and gels for international flights is a factor. In some countries, you can’t bring bottled water aboard the plane, even if you have bought it at the shops in the restricted area.
This is not an isolated incident. If things don’t change, something like this will happen again.
A case like this would have only been successful if there was sufficient actual (not anecdotal from the plaintiff) evidence that cabin crew denied her water. I find it very hard to believe a full service airline would have denied any passenger additional water. Such a case might have had more legs if the airline was a LCC and not a full service carrier, as many of them are known for denying drinking water to passengers without paying for it.
Every country I’ve seen that has at-gate screening and therefore restriction on LAGs purchased airside generally has at least one water fountain after screening at the gate. As long as security screening advise a water bottle can be retained to be refilled after screening as long as it’s empty, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Would there be a lot of money in direct flights to say New York and London? I would think that there would be quite a bit of money involved in the stopover destinations in Asia.
It will be a reasonable amount of money from Australia to London. The price of a ticket from Perth to London Heathrow (non stop) via Qantas will cost about $1321 in economy class. If you go in premium economy, business and first class, it will cost you more. Premium Economy costs about $4100, Business CLass cost you about $7000 and First class will cost you about $14541. There will be a lot of money which will involve in a stopover in Singapore.
Flying from Sydney to New York JFK will cost you about $1749 with Premium Economy about $3749, Business Class around $8554 and First Class more than $15 000.
Are you planning on flying direct to New York or London soon?
There’d be fewer costs in not having to pay airport fees in Asia/West USA and fuel use would probably be less, so it would be cheaper for travellers and for those that want/need to get there quicker.
But the thought of 19-20 hours on a plane will put a lot of people off.
The recent threats by Joyce that he’ll call the whole thing off if he can’t get unions to agree on working conditions for ultra long haul flights, plus the fact that realistically Airbus has the only viable option to commence operations in the next couple years (Boeing’s 777X probably won’t be available for 4 or 5 years considering recent delays). While the A350-1000 is an excellent plane I’m not so sure if Qantas is content with considering what is only realistically one option until Boeing can provide a better timeline for what they’re proposing.
The attitude on the project from Qantas & Joyce has gone from it been a done deal to a maybe, but only if everything goes our way in the last 6 months or so.
But the price of the tickets is only half of how the airline makes their money. There are incentives in having major stopovers in the major asian cities.
I would have thought that a non-stop Perth London route will be expensive than a stopover in Singapore. Not a lot of people would fly Qantas from Perth to London non-stop. they would rather stopover in Singapore.
Have you ever tried a Ultra-long haul flight before?
An ultra long haul flight will be more than 14 hours long and covers more than 12000km in flight length. I think that new aircraft like the Airbus A350, B777LR, B787s will be suitable for ultra long haul flights. 2018 marked a significant year with Qantas flying Perth to London non-stop using a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. I think that this was a huge success for the airline. The advantages of flying Perth London non-stop is that you wont have to stopover in cities like Dubai, Hong Kong and Doha.
