Man lights up in loo, then runs amok on Qantas flight

A MAN kicked walls and broke free from restraints before finally being subdued and handed over to Singapore police after attempting to smoke on a Qantas flight.Qantas cabin crew restrained the burly man, believed to be in his 40s, after a toilet smoke alarm went off.The man was restrained by his hands and mid-section twice after he managed to break free of the restraints once.He continually yelled and kicked walls throughout the flight.

Qantas axes China flights

A softening in demand for travel to China, triggered by the global financial crisis, has forced Qantas to cut back services to the country.Qantas is scrapping its Melbourne-Shanghai and Sydney-Beijing services as part of a belt-tightening effort, the airline said in a statement today. As leisure travel to Beijing declines, Australia’s largest airline will cut three flights to China, consolidating services to the nation into a daily Sydney-Shanghai route.”The Qantas group is performing well in this difficult environment, but we are not immune from the need to address under-performing routes,” group chief executive Alan Joyce said.

New Qantas A380 services to UK and US

QANTAS is to increase its A380 services between Australia and both the UK and US.From early June, the airline will operate five A380 services each week from Sydney to London, while flights to Los Angeles will increase from five to six per week.Qantas also announced the addition of a fourth service from Sydney to LA.The service increase will coincide with the delivery of the fourth Qantas A380 in May. Executive General Manager Qantas, Mr John Borghetti, said the Qantas A380 continued to receive exceptional feedback from customers.

Bad weather to blame for increase in flight problems

Storm and tempest are largely to blame for more late flights, writes Clive Dorman.It’s a long-standing truism that the reason for Australia’s near-flawless air travel safety record is that it “doesn’t have weather”, while the US and Europe face frequent blizzards, hurricanes and severe electrical storms.But now Australia truly does “have weather” – and lots of it. In the past two years, increasing incidences of fog, wind and rain have been blamed for an otherwise mysterious deterioration in the punctuality of Australia’s air services. Once the best in the world, they are now comparable with the chronic delay-ridden industries of Europe and the US.

Jetstar scraps fuel surcharges, cuts fares by up to $68

Jetstar is removing almost all international fuel surcharges in response to lower oil and jet fuel prices.The move follows the removal of all domestic fuel surcharges by Jetstar and Qantas from January 1.Jetstar said from midnight on Thursday, 12 February, it would remove the $25 fuel surcharge on trans Tasman services, the $35 surcharge on its short haul Asian services and the $68 surcharge on its international long haul services.However, the airline will maintain fuel surcharge for tickets sold within Japan.

V Australia’s first Boeing 777 touches down in Sydney

V Australia’s first Boeing 777 jet has touched down at Sydney Airport, marking the launch of a new home grown international carrier on the trans-Pacific route between Australia and the US west coast.The arrival of the new plane for the Virgin Blue offshoot airline on Monday is expected to spark a price war on tickets to Los Angeles as V Australia goes head-to-head on the route with Qantas, United Airlines and newcomer Delta.

V Australia offer women-only toilets

THONGS and Vegemite will feature on flights by the nation’s newest international airline as part of an assault on Qantas’s claim to be the spirit of Australia.V Australia will also offer a women-only toilet as it seeks to differentiate itself from its competitors, reports The Australian.”Men don’t often get it right and I felt sorry for women on aeroplanes so I made it clear I wanted a women’s-only lav,” Virgin Blue Group chief executive Brett Godfrey said yesterday as the first of seven, 360-seat Boeing 777 aircraft ordered by the airline landed in Sydney.

Qantas: Defending Its Rich U.S.-Australia Route

When Australia-based Qantas Airways launched its first superjumbo Airbus A380 flight last fall, it boasted in advertising campaigns that “it’s not the size of the plane; it’s what you do with it.” Qantas will soon begin learning whether its strategy for retaining control of the lucrative U.S.-Australia route can stand up to that claim. It faces unprecedented competition for a route that is among the most profitable for long-haul business travel in the world, with Qantas routinely charging some $18,000 for a round-trip business-class fare. In a research note issued late last month, Macquarie Bank predicted the launch of new service from Virgin Australia and Delta Air Lines (DAL) will lead to a trans-Pacific discount war.

Qantas and Lend Lease slide on new issues

Qantas and Lend Lease saw their shares slide sharply in Australia yesterday after both companies issued new stock to investors.Qantas dropped 18.3 per cent, its biggest one-day decline since it was listed in 1995, to close at a 12-year low of A$1.87.The airline raised A$500m after selling 270.3m shares at A$1.85 each – towards the lower end of the range offered to investors.The price represented a 19 per cent discount to the previous day’s closing price.Meanwhile, Lend Lease’s shares slid 16.3 per cent to A$5.66, the lowest level since December 2000. The company completed a A$303m fundraising at A$6.50 a share.

Qantas shares tumble to 12-year low

QANTAS shares fell to a 12-year low today after it completed a heavily discounted $500 million institutional placement.The Australian carrier yesterday posted a 66 per cent drop in first-half earnings and some analysts had questioned the need for the placement.Qantas said today it had placed about 270.3 million shares at $1.85 each after receiving “strong interest from a range of existing and new institutional investors”.The funds will be used to support its $35 billion dollar fleet renewal program, reduce net debt and support its investment grade credit rating, Qantas said.