London airfare war erupts ahead of first non-stop Qantas flight from Perth

Competitive airfares on the kangaroo route “won’t be going away’’, say experts ahead of the first non-stop Qantas flight to London.

Qantas’s new 787-9 Dreamliner that will fly Perth-London non-stop.

The fiercely-competitive airfares on the kangaroo route “won’t be going away”, say experts ahead of Qantas launching its historic non-stop flight from Perth to London on Saturday.

An injection of capacity from a slew of carriers means consumers are able to snap up cheap tickets on flights to Britain.

Industry veteran and executive chairman of CAPA-Centre for Aviation Peter Harbison said the price war “won’t be going away”.

“The price war’s been going on for decades,” Mr Harbison said.

“Only the intensity changes. With 40 or more ways of travelling between Europe and Australia, and the Chinese airlines now ­entering the fray, it’s never going to go away. At present it’s particularly intense, in all classes — ­except premium economy, which is where the magic is at the ­moment.”

Interest in the kangaroo route — which was launched in 1947 and was originally Sydney to London — has been piqued by the start of the direct Perth to London 787-9 Dreamliner flight, which is expected to take about 17 hours to cover the 14,498km distance, depending on winds.

The first non-stop flight leaves Perth on Saturday at 6.50pm.

Today, Qantas had Perth to London from $1296 as part of a sale that ends on Tuesday. Qatar Airways had flights from Perth to London starting from $1120, also if booked by Tuesday, on the A380 service starting on May 1.

Emirates was advertising $1269 for travel up to April 10, with that fare expiring on March 27. Garuda Indonesia was offering economy fares to London from $999 if booked by March 31, while STA Travel had Air China fares from Sydney to London from $1049 if booked by April 30.

Mr Harbison said while heavy discounting could prove damaging to carriers, this was irrelevant in the bigger picture as “they are all network airlines who try to compensate with yields in those markets where they have more powerful positions”.

Aviation analyst Neil Hansford, the chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, said the new Dreamliner service, which will seat 236 passengers, “is not what’s going to drive prices down”. he said: “The basic thing is that Qantas has managed its capacity very well, hence its recent profits. There is so much capacity on the kangaroo route that I haven’t seen it come off the boil in the last three to five years. It’s always been hot.”

While traditional airlines have long flown to Britain from Australia, there are now many Chinese carriers also in the fray.

“That's putting even more ­capacity into it ... this is going to be a price retardant,” Mr Hansford said.

Webber Quantitative Consulting managing director Tony Webber, who was Qantas Group chief economist between 2004 and 2011, said capacity from Asian carriers was growing strongly and “because of that they need to pull down the fares to attract people onto their planes”.

“I don’t think it’s being used as a weapon to get people to fly on their aircraft rather than on the new route,” Dr Webber said.

He said he expected the non-stop Perth-London route to be a novelty for the first few months.

“For the first few months anyway it will be a novelty. People will want to fly on that route just for the novelty basis. But thereafter that route is about attracting people who want a lower travel time. And that’s not typically a price-sensitive market.”

Mr Harbison said that in the scheme of things, one flight a day between Australia and London “isn’t going to make a major dif­ference to the wider competitive scene”.