With no fanfare British Airways and Qantas have quietly acknowledged that the Kangaroo route belongs to someone else.
In the past 10 days they have both cut a direct flight each from London to Sydney. Last week QF announced that it would still have the same level of frequency because its partner BA would make up the difference. Today according to e-tid - BA itself has axed one of its two LHR-SYD directs.
Looking at the market shares on the route - we can see that there has been a significant trend away from the traditional carriers. SQ has also seen its share slipping on the route.
A rearranging of the world order on the Northern Europe to SE Asia and Oz has been going on for some time. The Gulf Carriers have been grabbing market share faster than anyone else.
At the height of the economic crisis - a RTW fare for about 500 quid existed. However this is not all the fault of the airlines. The fast rising Aussie dollar makes Australia less of an attractive proposition than other cheaper destinations. Couple this with the pretty dramatic fall in the UK economy and passenger traffic and you can see why BA and QF are making smart decisions to cut traffic on this route.
Still I am nostalgic for the time when this used to be the symbol of the Empire. My RTW this year just may be the last one on a OneWorld ticket.
Cheers
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