Qantas has announced flights to several new destinations in early 2021.
Australian carrier Qantas has announced seven new routes out of which 6 routes are that on which Rex, a regional airline in Australia, has a monopoly on. This announcement by Qantas has sparked a fierce response from the airline.
Qantas will launch these new flights from 1st February,2021 using QantasLink Dash-8 aircraft.
The new routes are:
- Adelaide-Mount Gambier
- Sydney-Griffith
- Melbourne-Newcastle
- Melbourne-Mount Gambier
- Melbourne-Wagga Wagga
- Melbourne-Merimbula
- Melbourne-Albury
“We’re also pleased to be able to offer locals more choice and competitive fares on these routes, most of which have been monopolies for years,” said John Gissing, CEO, QantasLink.
Rex has called this move opportunistic, accusing Qantas of using Australian Government subsidies to finance a strategy that will destroy incumbent regional operators.
“Rex has grave concerns that Qantas is embarking on an opportunistic strategy of flooding the regional airline market with additional excess capacity to eliminate weaker regional competitors,” said Rex in a media release.
“Rex calls on the Federal (Australian)Government to cease all grants to Qantas if it persists with this opportunistic behavior.”, Rex added.
“We’ll be promoting these new flights to millions of our frequent flyers across the country in the lead up to the flights commencing next year,”said Mr Gissing. Qantas has nearly 12 million people enrolled in its frequent flyer program.
“All our aircraft carry fixed costs, regardless of whether they’re grounded or not. We’d rather get as many aircraft back in the air as we can because it’s better for our business, our customers and gets more of our people back to work.”, he added.
The airline has around 50 Dash 8s in its fleet.
What do you think of Qantas’ new routes? Do you support Rex’s statement? Let me know in the comments section below.