Qantas and Jetstar scrap domestic fuel surcharges

Qantas and Jetstar will remove their domestic fuel surcharges from New Year’s day.Qantas said its $18 per sector fuel surcharge would be axed for tickets issued on or after Thursday, January 1.Executive general manager John Borghetti said the surcharge would be removed for all Qantas domestic and QantasLink bookings.”Based on the higher fuel costs associated with our international operations, international surcharges will remain,” Mr Borghetti said.

Qantas passengers stranded in Japan

Almost 200 Qantas passengers were stranded in Tokyo last night after a flight to Sydney experienced engine trouble shortly after take-off.The captain in charge of QF22 elected to return to Narita International Airport, Tokyo, shortly after take-off due to an “engine minor fault”, a Qantas spokesman said.The engine on the A330-300 aircraft was still fully functional, but the pilots decided to return to Tokyo so the issue could be fully identified, he said.

Qantas A380 on side trip to paradise

A MIDAIR emergency involving a sick Qantas passenger forced the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, to touch down in Fiji for the first time yesterday.But what was supposed to be a quick turnaround became an overnight holiday in paradise after an onboard computer problem was unable to be fixed by local engineers.Flight QF12, with 337 passengers on board, was 10 hours and 45 minutes into its journey from Los Angeles to Sydney when a male passenger apparently suffered diabetic shock.

International air travel bookings in nosedive

TOURISM may be facing a devastating new year, with evidence that bookings on major international routes are down by as much as 20 per cent.The Tourism and Transport Forum had been expecting overall inbound arrivals to grow by 3 per cent next year, but is expecting a fall of up to 5per cent.TTF executive director Olivia Wirth said: “There will definitely be operators going out of business, particularly in Queensland and particularly in regional areas. There are already indications that some places, particularly Cairns, have been suffering for some time.”

BA and Qantas merger talks fail

British Airways and Qantas today said they had failed to reach agreement on a potential merger.The pair revealed earlier this month that they were in discussions about joining forces through a dual-listed company structure.But in a statement today, BA and Qantas said it had not been possible to come to an agreement over the key terms of the merger. They did not provide further details.Both airlines already jointly market, or codeshare, on some routes and had pledged to retain their identities through any tie-up.

Qantas quiet over Jetstar merger report

Qantas Airways Ltd, which ended merger talks with British Airways last week, declined to comment on reports that its budget subsidiary Jetstar was in merger discussions with low-cost carrier AirAsia Bhd.”We talk to airlines all the time about possible partnerships, relationships and cooperative agreements,” a Qantas spokesperson said.A report in Malaysia’s The Star newspaper, citing an unnamed source, said Jetstar and AirAsia were in merger talks, possibly involving a shareswap, to cope with the slowing worldwide demand for air travel.

Christmas in Australia, luggage in limbo

MISTAKES and technical problems combined to cripple Qantas’s baggage handling operations during Sydney Airport’s busiest weekend of the year, leaving scores of passengers without their bags, Christmas presents, and, in one case, two miniature schnauzers.An English family were told their suitcase full of Christmas gifts was among 750 bags caught up in a baggage glitch that affected flights from London and Los Angeles to Sydney and Melbourne, as Qantas struggled to cope with the pre-Christmas rush.

British Airways-Qantas merger talks still up in the air

THE prospect of an $8 billion merger between Qantas and British Airways is fading.While Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford is keen to tie the knot with BA early next year senior managers at head office are playing down the likelihood of it going ahead, The Courier-Mail reports.It is understood differences are emerging between what Mr Clifford and the board want and what management actually see as do-able.Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said two weeks ago that BA was not the only merger option open to the airline but last week he described the proposal as a possible deal.

Qantas in merger talks with Malaysia Airlines

MALAYSIA Airlines has become the latest airline to hold merger talks with Qantas.The airline’s managing director Idris Jala told the Associated Press that Malaysia Airlines is holding talks with Qantas to “pursue strategic partnerships” and a possible code share to combat poor passenger numbers.”We are in talks with a number of airlines, including Qantas, Mr Jala told Associated Press.

Qantas and British Airways call off $8bn merger

QANTAS and British Airways have called off plans to merge into an $8 billion-plus mega carrier after failing to agree on key terms.Qantas revealed earlier this month the airline was in talks with the UK carrier about a potential merger through a dual-listing structure.Both carriers yesterday issued statements saying the talks “have ended”.”Despite the potential longer term benefits for Qantas and BA, the airlines have not been able to come to an agreement over the key terms of the merger, at this time,” Qantas said.