I have already flown five times this New Year! All flights but one with Virgin Australia Business class around Australia! Thank you Velocity Frequent Flyer seats! So much for less flying in 2012. The exception was an Air Australia economy flight- check out my Trip Report on them – coming up Tuesday 10th.
Australia
Tag Archives for Australia.
Air Australia–Where does a new Carrier fit?
Since the start of aviation , Australia’s domestic airline market has been largely composed of two major national airlines. From time to time the cozy duopoloy is challenged by a new entrant with a blaze of low fares.The latest such carrier is Air Australia. 2011 Background Twelve months is a long time in aviation. Qantas the dominant domestic carrier suffered a series of rolling disputes in 2011 culminating in the dramatic three day grounding of the carrier’s services. Tiger Airlines Australia was also grounded be the safety authorities in mid 2011 for safety breaches. Virgin Blue the nation’s largest discount carrier has made a move to full service airline. Brisbane-based Strategic Airlines Operating…
December, 2011 Blog Review
December is one of my quietest travel months. A mere seven flights- three with Etihad and four with the transitioning Virgin Australia (all in front row!). Blog post wise: Dec 31: Best and worst airlines of 2011: Top Spot to Emirates and Bottom spot to Tiger Australia (that will teach them to bump me off a flight!) Dec 21: Flying highlights for 2011 -I effectively flew round the world seven times in 2011 and managed a 7*7 frequency whereby my 737th flight was on a Southwest 737, the 747th on a Qantas 747: 757th on a United 757, then Qantas 767 and Air New Zealand…
Virgin Australia absorbs Pacific Blue and V Australia
Once upon a time (August, 2000 to be exact), a new airline was launched in Australia to challenge the two long standing carriers: Ansett and Qantas. That airline was Virgin Blue. The name was chosen in a competition playing on the Australian custom of calling a redhead Blue or Bluey. I flew Virgin Blue 12 times around Australia and rated them 4.4 out of 5. They initially used a low cost Southwest/Easyjet model with some quirky Australianisms and the Virgin feel. In 2003 Virgin Blue started Pacific Blue, a New Zealand based subsidiary which provided services between…
American Airlines Ticketing #Fail!
I have just used Kayak to research a flight: Austin-Pittsburgh-Boston. The best option price and schedule- wise was an American Airlines/USAir combo sold by American Airlines for $US357.60 in Economy. Kayak gave me a link to American Airlines which I clicked on. This deposited me on the onto the American Airline homepage (www.aa.com). I entered all my personal data and scrolled through to payments page where I entered my Credit Card details including address. I discovered, at this point that there was not a drop down box for “Australia”. I could enter “USA”, “Canada” or the “UK” but not “Australia”. So I called…
Fry Tweets Qantas A380 Failure
British actor and Tweetaholic Stephen Fry was en route from Sydney to London today aboard a Qantas A380 operating as QF 31. Four hours out from Singapore, the plane was diverted to Dubai due to engine problems. Bizarrely one year to the day since a Qantas A380 Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine shredded in what could have been a disaster for that airliner. Fry kept us entertained with a blow by blow account of today’s situation which a Qantas spokesperson said was not connected to last year’s issue (Oh yeah? how d they know?): 82 stephenfry: Taking…
More on Qantas: Reaction to the Grounding
Roy Morgan has released results, from their regular phone poll survey of public opinion in Australia. Som key feedback from the Australian public suggets that respondents were: more inclined to blame management (56%) than the unions (42%) for the shutdown overall disapproving of the shutdown with 61% against it and 35% approving wanting federal government sooner (64%) -with 32% disagreeing This suggests that the Qantas Board and Management have a long row to hoe to get Australians to support their move and new directions.
Qantas is Back
21 days of compulsory negotiations between unions and company to follow. I will be interested in the outcomes! What the unions want: Transport Workers Union: 5 per cent pay rise per year, with an additional 1 per cent in superannuation (pension payments) protected against a rise in CPI. The Australian and International Pilots Association: 2.5 per cent pay increase, each year, for three years Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association : 5.33 per cent pay rise to cover wages plus additional allowances, every year, for three years. This, however, is not what the real issue is about. Qantas announced recently the…
Qantas-Anyone worried?
As a Qantas very frequent flyer, I am watching Qantas in disputes with three unions. There is the classic “blame the management” by the unions and the classic “blame the unions” by Qantas spokespeople. For passengers, there’s inconvenience of cancelled flights. For the tourist industry, theres a fear of loss of passengers at this crucial time. For Qantas there is presumably the economic impact of revenue losses. I am interested that Virgin Australia is adding capacity to cope and advertising special fares. Since their conversion from discount to full service carrier, they have apparently snared 13 per cent of the Australian…
I love a train ride!
I am taking The Overland from Melbourne to Adelaide in Australia nexy Thursday. This is a 828 kilometre trip – about 500 miles. These two capitals are almost twice the distance as the Eurostar which is 495km, just over 308 miles. The Overland takes about nine hours to do its journey and Eurostar 2.25 hours! It is a long slow trip with great scenery, a nice dining/lounge car. I plug my laptop into the onboard power, fire up my 3G internet card and I can work and play all the way! The train started originated as the Intercolonial…
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