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Qatar Airways only plans to retain five of its 10 Airbus A380s as it recovers from the Covid-19 crisis, according to the airline’s CE Akbar Al Baker. Al Baker cited the superior economics – and consequently lower environmental footprint – of the Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s in the Oneworld carrier’s fleet versus those of the Airbus superjumbo. “Even when we operate [our A380s], we will only operate half of the numbers we have”, Al Baker states. “So if you are very interested to purchase some for yourself, I will sell [them] to you.” Regarding the A380s that it plans to keep, Al Baker reiterates that Qatar Airways has no plans to bring them back into service “for the foreseeable future”, amid a recovery in air travel demand that is expected to take several years. In July 2020, Qatar Airways released analysis showing that its A380s emitted 95% more carbon dioxide per block-hour on its Melbourne, New York and Toronto routes than its A350s, and an average of 80% more across all services. “The [A350s] and [787s] are very efficient airplanes when it comes to emissions, especially the [A350-1000],” Al Baker states. “We never expected that aircraft to [reach] the efficiency that it has today.”<br/>

Qantas CE Alan Joyce believes the carrier’s Project Sunrise initiative to launch ultra-long-haul flights will be even more viable in the post-coronavirus world. Joyce adds that the plan will be revisited at the end of 2021, potentially setting the stage to launch services from Melbourne and Sydney to London and New York. As the Covid-19 pandemic grew more severe, in May 2020 Qantas pressed pause on Project Sunrise. The initiative could have seen it order up to 12 Airbus A350-1000s. “We were pretty close…within a couple of weeks of placing orders for the aircraft,” says Joyce. He adds that Airbus would have provided a “specially designed version” of the -1000 “to allow us to do these sectors economically – and the business case looked really good.” “I’m optimistic that the [Project Sunrise] business case will still look good,” says Joyce. ‘[But] we’re obviously not going to put an order in for new aircraft until we see the international markets recovering.” He contends that in a post Covid-19 world, people will have a preference for flying direct, as opposed to flying through hubs.<br/>

Qantas boss Alan Joyce says Australia still only has room for two major airline groups and it is unlikely both Virgin Australia and new rival Regional Express (Rex) will survive the post-pandemic aviation dogfight. Joyce said Wednesday that country airline Rex launching flights between Sydney and Melbourne in March would spark fierce competition on the busy route. "My personal view is that this market has never sustained three airline groups and it probably won’t into the future," he said. "You can be guaranteed that Qantas will be one of them – it’s who else is going to be in the market place post this and into the future is going to be interesting." Rex's move to start jet aircraft services between capital cities is the biggest shake-up of the aviation market in decades. It currently flies to 59 regional and remote destinations around Australia. It plans to have a fleet of up to 10 Boeing 737s in the skies by the end of this year. Joyce also told the event that the Sydney coronavirus outbreak in December and resulting state border closures set back his airline's recovery from the pandemic by three months. Qantas had earlier predicted its domestic flying capacity would return to 80% of pre-COVID levels in the first three months of 2021 but Joyce said it would now be stuck at 60% before reaching 80% by mid-year.<br/>

Qantas is confident of a strong domestic market rebound as the coronavirus pandemic abates in 2021, led by visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel. Speaking Thursday, Qantas CE Alan Joyce said there is enormous domestic travel demand pent up in Australia, which continues to suffer a number of interstate border closures amid periodic surges in Covid-19, most recently in Brisbane and Sydney. Prior to December’s Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney, which resulted in various border closures, Joyce says that Qantas had been experiencing “significant growth and volumes.” The renewed outbreaks were, however, a clear setback. The latest outbreak means that Qantas expects to deploy 60% of its pre-pandemic capacity in January-March 2021, and 80% from April-June. As the year goes on vaccines will play an increasingly important role. Joyce expects that the Australian population will be “fully vaccinated by the end of October.” Australian concerns about international travel will likely see a boom in domestic VFR traffic, as well as demand for domestic tourism. Joyce is also optimistic about the return of business travelers, with company research suggesting pent up demand in this area well. If, however, the recovery falters and the tough conditions it faced in 2020 still prevail, Qantas can survive for “multiple years with the level of liquidity we have.”<br/>