Qantas’ market share almost halved on international routes

QANTAS’ fall from favour with international travellers has been highlighted by a new report showing the airline’s market share has almost halved in the last decade.

QANTAS’ fall from favour with international travellers has been highlighted by a new Federal Government report showing the airline’s market share has almost halved in the last decade.

The 2013-14 International Airline Activity report shows Qantas carried 16.4 per cent of international passengers in the year to June 30, compared with 30.5 per cent in 2003-04.

In the same period Virgin Australia’s international market share grew from nought to 7.1 per cent, and Emirates improved from 4.3 per cent to 9.5 per cent.

Low cost carriers also commanded more international market share with the likes of Air Asia, Jetstar, Scoot and Tigerair now carrying a total of 15.5 per cent of passengers.

The fiercely competitive environment has proven very costly to Qantas with the airline losing close to $500 million on its international operations in the last year.

GOING TO WAR: Qantas tries to woo business class customers with new suite

Doing it tough for years, ... none more so than the year past with a $497 million loss recorded. Picture: Getty

But a Qantas spokesman pointed out the Flying Kangaroo remained the largest carrier in and out of Australia by a “significant margin”.

“We’ve added more than 100 flights to our schedule for the peak summer season including adding new destinations like Vancouver and increasing the number of flights to places like Tokyo, Los Angeles and Hawaii to meet demand,” he said.

“There’s no doubt the international market is extremely competitive with a lot of capacity added by overseas carriers into this market over the past few years, but the trend is that this is returning to more normal levels.”

Over capacity ... a big problem in the international market with more than 11 million airline seats unfilled on international routes in the last year.

Overall international passenger numbers increased by 6.8 per cent compared with the previous year, but that growth was outstripped by seat numbers which climbed 8.2 per cent.

As a result, more than 11 million seats on planes were unfilled on flights in and out of Australia or 23.6 per cent of capacity.

The intense rivalry on international routes has even spilt into cabins, with Qantas this week unveiling a “refreshed” economy seat and a new business suite that allows travellers to recline from takeoff to landing if they wish.

Refreshed ... Qantas’ new A330 business class suite offers travellers the option of lie back from gate to gate.

The boast left Virgin Australia scrambling for regulatory approval to ensure its own corporate passengers could do the same on its A330s and Boeing 777s.

The suites will be available on domestic as well as international routes from later this year on Qantas and from mid-2015 on Virgin.

Originally published as Qantas’ market share almost halved on international routes