澳航CEO谈悉尼至伦敦直飞航线：A350-1000ULR将执飞

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Would you pay an extra 20% to fly direct from Sydney to London? Sydney, Australia to London. No stops. It could be 19 hours. It could be up to 22 hours. It's a long way. It's nine time zones, but it's direct and it significantly shortens the distance effectively between London and Sydney. Quadness. Quantis is betting that demand for direct flights will be there and from next year it will be using custom Airbus A350s.

They got extra a big extra fuel tank to make this possible. Other routes will then follow. I think we're going to get 12 aircraft. They're all on order and at some point they're going to be delivered and some point we're going to see other destinations being added to the London and Sydney route. Vanessa Hudson is the CEO of Quantis. She is at the Airbus headquarters in Tulus and she joins us now. Vanessa Hudson, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

This is obviously a big step that has taken a while to get to. You are going to be launching this route. You have got the aircraft. How much demand, Vanessa, are we going to see for this route?

Well, thank you for for having me this morning. We're so excited. Um I'm coming to you today from the Airbus facility where we have seen our first A3501 1000 UL aircraft in in the Quantis colors. And this aircraft uh is is a new era of of travel uh where it will be able to fly from the east coast of Australia to London direct and and also to New York. And we are seeing and hearing from our customers that this is something that we we really that they really want.

And I think the one thing to say is that this is not a leap of faith. This is happening now. Um, we've got some of the longest uh routes of any airline around the world. Uh, we're flying currently today from Perth to London uh from Oakland to uh New York and those uh flights are are very long, but we are actually seeing incredible demand uh for those flights. We're getting some of the strongest customer satisfaction uh and also some of the highest seat factors on these on these flights.

So we think the extension of that onetop uh from the east coast of Australia to London and that'll be our first uh route. We announced that yesterday. So we're very excited and even um in the current environment we're seeing that demand even stronger now to avoid those midpoints and to get uh to their ultimate destination in one go.

Okay. Do you think do you think the Iran war has made it even more attractive? Do you think people will no longer want to go via Dubai or Doha to make that route? Do you think it is now better to go pointtooint Sydney to London and I think people will and will people pay for that?

Well, I think that we are seeing today that that customers are prepared to pay for that. Um uh and that is on that that Perth, London um and also Oakland, New York. So we know that there is demand that is there and we know with that customer segment that that demand is growing but that's not to say that customers also um may prefer to take another alternate route. So our partner with Emirates uh post uh the conflict resolving we believe will come back strong and we support them with that and I think it's about option and I think that's the one thing that's really important.

There are some customers that want to go direct, but there also will be customers that want to go through the midpoints and those options are really important and we're going to continue to provide that on our own network, but also we're going to continue to really value the partners that we have particularly like uh Emirates and also American Airlines.

Vanessa, good morning. Um, can you tell us a little more about what it is worth to go direct, Vanessa? What kind of pricing power do you anticipate having on those kinds of products? Well, I think that obviously that the price is going to be determined by the demand and our business case for project sunrise is based on what we are getting and what we are seeing today. So this is based on fact and and the premium that we're currently getting on our long routes uh Perth London uh particularly uh we are seeing around about a 20% a higher yield outcome than what the onepoint um uh routes uh through either Asia or the Middle East and that's been um something that we have seen consistently for the five years um at a minimum that these flights have been um flying customers from Australia to direct.

And so it's the proposition of getting there in one point, but it's also the fact that Quantis has actually been a ultra long haul carrier for many years. Australia, you know, is at a at a place in the world that that is further away for for many. And so we have got a capability and a and an experience in the cabin that is going to be second to none. and it's going to be focused on making sure that that experience in getting that one stop um is seamless for customers and we're working with experts.

We've been working with Sydney University for a decade around how to manage jet lag and how to actually make that experience really good. So we have

taken every kind of approach to make sure that the experience is a great one.

Yes. And I'm sure you've learned a lot about that. Uh and and you seem to have learned a lot from the existing long flights that you do uh Vanessa about how profitable they can be for you. So back in 2023, Quantis said they'd get an operating profit uplift or the company said it would get an operating profit uplift of 400 million Australian dollars from Project Sunrise. That's a bit of a dated figure now. What would the equivalent now be?

Is it higher or lower than that? No, it's the same. And um and we constantly look at at the business case uh and we haven't changed that figure. We still expect that the earnings uplift for Project Sunrise. So that's all 12 aircraft uh will be approximately 400 million and and that's both from updating the the revenue assumptions and and also the cost assumptions. So uh we remain very confident uh that the the the business will actually see that uplift.

Vanessa, when do we get the next route? When do we get New York? What are you looking at? What comes next?

Well, New York will definitely come next. So, uh the ultra longhaul market uh will start with Sydney to London in October 27. Uh we will look to take that uh route to daily. So, we'll need three aircraft to do that. And so from April next year, we get our first aircraft, but we will have five of the A350s by November next year. And so that'll enable us uh not long after Sydney London to start Sydney, New York as well.

So it's all going to happen in the second half of next calendar year. So very exciting. And we go on sale in February next year as well. And that'll be for a 12-month period. So uh London and New York will both be on sale. talking about being on sale. Um there is and you mentioned Emirates a little bit earlier on. There is an expectation amongst many in this industry and we certainly heard it a lot at IATA that we will see the Gulf carriers launching a price war to bring back the demand that maybe some of them feel that they have lost uh during the Iran conflict.

How will that affect the economics of all of this? And do you expect that price war to materialize? Well, first and foremost, um, our position is we want to see the conflict come to an end. That's a good thing. That's a good thing for the global economy. That's a good thing for aviation because, uh, whilst the conflict has been occurring, fuel prices have been incredibly high. And so, we want to see it come to an end.

We want to see, uh, the Middle Eastern carriers restore their schedule. And we want to see um, the the network and and those customer, you know, itineraries get back to um, the normal. And so the short term we might see some some sharper pricing but I think that what we are going to see is that the market will normalize quite quickly and we want to see that happen.

So