Here is United’s route network to Australia – flying from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane and from Houston to Sydney.United’s seasonal second flight between San Francisco and Sydney will only operate for two months, and only three days a week instead of daily. They’ll use a smaller plane for San Francisco to Melbourne, and there will be fewer LA – Melbourne flights leading into peak season. Houston to Sydney will also see fewer frequencies as well.
United gets domestic feed from Virgin Australia, which controls about one-third of Australia’s domestic flying compared to Qantas which controls two-thirds. Traditionally Australia has been a strong market for U.S. flying in winter and weak over the summer but post-Covid, summer flying has been strong as well.
United gets domestic feed from Virgin Australia, which controls about one-third of Australia’s domestic flying compared to Qantas which controls two-thirds. Traditionally Australia has been a strong market for U.S. flying in winter and weak over the summer but post-Covid, summer flying has been strong as well.
American Airlines, for instance, was releasing reasonably-priced redemption seats a year ago as long as you weren’t flying non-stop. More recently they were releasing reasonably priced redemption seats for the first couple of weeks after a travel date loaded into their schedule. They’ve stopped doing this. Delta, of course, rarely releases reasonably-priced redemptions for long haul flights period. Air Canada’s Australia flights are exorbitant as well, and Qantas now releases premium cabin saver redemption inventory mostly to their own members and not to partner frequent flyer programs.
Paradoxically since it can be tough to get discounted premium seats to Australia, that might suggest the flights are doing well, and yet it does seem as though there isn’t enough demand to sustain all of the flying. That’s suggestive, perhaps, of a revenue management problem and not just a scheduling problem.The Chicago-based carrier remains larger to Australia than other rivals, and isn’t eliminating routes, but will fly either smaller planes or fly less frequently on several routes – removing seats from the market, hoping to fill remaining aircraft and at higher fares.
Interestingly they really haven’t made reasonable award seats available, certainly in premium cabins, on routes that are performing poorly. Australia is one of the toughest destinations for a premium cabin award.