As part of a move to harmonize operations with their Oneworld partner American Airlines, Qantas is set to discontinue operations from Australia to San Francisco on May 14th. The sudden halt of San Francisco is a bit of a surprise, but given the strength of American Airlines at DFW the move is an understandable one. Qantas seems bullish about the potential of switching to Dallas and have indicated that the new route will be inaugurated with 4 weekly A380 services which will turn to a daily service with the arrival of additional A380s.
Qantas abandons San Fransisco in favor of Dallas
The interesting wrinkle in this new route is that while the outbound leg (QF7) will operate SYD-DFW the return leg (QF8) will operate DFW-BNE-SYD due to range restrictions caused by prevailing winds over the pacific. The stop in Brisbane may become a problem. For example, for a passenger flying from Miami to Sydney the thought of MIA-DFW-BNE-SYD seems far less palatable than MIA-LAX-SYD. Though Qantas are taking steps to improve the customs and immigration process for stopover passengers in Brisbane I feel that the perception problem is one that may not be easy to overcome. To their credit Qantas do see this is a problem – if not necessarily the size of the problem – and have indicated that when the 787 enters its ranks it will take DFW-SYD direct in both directions. The only issue with that resolution is that there is still very little clarity into when the 787 will actually enter service and how it will perform. Hopefully the US$3.1 million in rebates from Dallas-Fort Worth airport to Qantas will be enough to keep things ticking along until Boeing gets the 787 rolling in earnest.
