Qantas is cutting one of its two Perth-Singapore daily services, and axing its Perth-Hong Kong and Adelaide-Singapore services, yet headlined its Frequent Flyer online newsletter with the claim that it is "improving its services from Australia to Asia".
Clearly, that’s not the case if you live in Perth or Adelaide.
Brisbane does better. Qantas is increasing its Brisbane-Hong Kong services to daily from four times a week, and adds four more Sydney-Singapore return services.
Several services to Asian cities have been retimed in what Qantas calls its strategy of "growing with Asia".
"Our first step has been to restructure existing services to Asia now that they are no longer tied to onward links to Europe," said Qantas International CEO, Simon Hickey.
This follows the proposed partnership with Emirates which will see the UAE carrier take care of the Kangaroo Route – now the Camel Route – to Europe over Dubai.
Qantas said it is also "examining" a refresh of its international A330 fleet to include a lie-flat bed in Business Class.
Qantas has also brought forward the end date for its loss-making Frankfurt services by six months to April 15.
