Alliance partners British Airways and Qantas today announced the introduction of new services between Britain and Australia, providing increased frequencies and a wider choice of travel times.

Their new joint schedule, to be phased in from June with all changes complete by November, will offer more flights between:
á London and the two prime Australian destinations of Sydney and Melbourne
á London and Singapore and onwards between Singapore and Australia, providing wider choice of arrival and departure times
á Brisbane and Singapore and between Perth and Singapore, with connections at Singapore to and from London, providing a wider choice of travel times and routeings between the two Australian cities and Europe.

In line with their long-standing joint services agreement covering the “kangaroo” route between the UK and Australia, all of these services will be operated with joint BA and QF flight codes.

To support the new schedules, Qantas will lease seven Boeing 767s from the fleet of British Airways, released as a result of the latter’s new fleet strategy, which includes the use of smaller aircraft for shorthaul services.

Services between Singapore and Perth will increase to 18 a week, all flown by Qantas using the 767s. This represents an extra four frequencies a week on the current seven British Airways 747-400s and seven Qantas 767s.

Qantas will also introduce 11 Boeing 767 services each week between Singapore and Brisbane, in place of the current seven weekly 747-400 flights by British Airways.

Direct British Airways frequencies between London and Sydney will rise to two Boeing 747-400s a day, an increase of four flights a week. Its existing daily flights via Bangkok will continue, with the current thrice weekly service via Kuala Lumpur replaced with daily flights via Singapore. Qantas will also fly two daily direct Boeing 747-400 flights between London Heathrow and Sydney, one stopping at Singapore and the other at Bangkok.

By November, the alliance will have increased flights between Singapore and London overall by two flights a week, giving a total of 26 a week. These will include, for the first time, 12 daylight flights a week from Singapore - providing customers with a choice of day or night time BA/QF services on this route.

Between London and Melbourne, Qantas will add a second daily 747-400, flying via Singapore.

In addition, British Airways is from April adding another three terminating flights a week between London and Bangkok, on top of its current daily transitting services, all flown by 747-400s, linking with more Qantas Australian-bound services there.

Geoff Dixon, Qantas Deputy Chief Executive, said the use of the Boeing 767s would provide substantial benefits: “By using Boeing 767 aircraft from Perth and Brisbane, we will be able to increase frequency more quickly and offer a greater choice of travel options for passengers who want to fly from Australia to Singapore to connect with a Qantas or British Airways flight to the UK.”

Carl Michel, British Airways’ Commercial Director, said that the ability of both airlines to match customers’ needs with aircraft capacity and frequency was yet another example of the benefits of co-operation between the two carriers and the implementation of British Airways’ strategy.

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