AUSTRALIA: Qantas To Launch World’s Longest Nonstop Flight

Qantas has unveiled plans for the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight Friday (Aug 25), calling it the last frontier of global aviation, as it posted healthy annual net profits on the back of a strong domestic market.

The firm, which hopes to fly non-stop from Australia to London and New York by 2022, announced a 17.2 per cent slip in annual net profit of A$852 million (US$673 million) after record results last year. The airline’s underlying profit before tax – its preferred measure – was the second-highest in its history at A$1.4 billion in the year to Jun 30, matching forecasts.

The results came after the completion of an aggressive three-year restructuring process that saw it slash jobs and reduce its fleet.

Three years ago, we started an ambitious turnaround programme to make the Qantas Group strong and profitable, chief executive Alan Joyce said. We tackled some difficult structural issues, became a lot more efficient and kept improving customer service. Today’s announcements show this plan has well and truly paid off.

Shares in Qantas rose 3.1 per cent to A$5.98 in Sydney on Friday.

Joyce unveiled ambitious plans for nonstop flights from Australia’s eastern seaboard to Europe, a major undertaking the airline has dubbed Project Sunrise.

Qantas will challenge both Airbus and Boeing to deliver an aircraft capable of regularly flying direct services like Sydney to London, Brisbane to Paris, Melbourne to New York nonstop with a full payload by 2022, he said. This is the last frontier of global aviation, this is the antidote to the tyranny of distance and a revolution for air travel in Australia.

Joyce said the two manufacturers were working on planes that were almost capable of doing the job – the 777X and the A350ULR.

We believe that advances on the next few years will close the gap,he added. This will be one of the most strategically important aircraft orders in the history of Qantas.

He said the nonstop flights would take up to four hours off the journey from Sydney to London, which is now just over 24 hours.

Currently, the longest nonstop commercial flight is Qatar Airways’ Doha-Auckland service, covering a distance of 14,535km and with a flight time of more than 16 hours. Qantas’ planned Sydney-London flight would be about 17,000km.

The carrier’s profits were supported by a strong showing in the local market, with the domestic arm reporting a record underlying profit of A$645 million, up 11.6 per cent on the previous corresponding period.

Its international division slipped A$185 million, but still recorded its second-highest underlying profit at A$327 million.

The results benefited from an improvement in the rate of growth of capacity in the international markets, which is one of the most difficult parts of the Qantas business, CMC Markets’ chief market analyst Ric Spooner said Overall, I think management is making a good fist of a difficult environment and they are continuing to produce the goods.

The airline declared a final dividend of A$0.07 and announced a share buyback of up to A$373 million.



Tourism Observer

AUSTRALIA: Etihad Flight To Abu Dhabi Was Target Of Plane Terror Plot

Etihad Airways said Tuesday it was helping Australian police with their investigation into an alleged plot to bring down a plane, as authorities sifted through evidence from counter-terrorism raids.

Four men were arrested in Sydney on Saturday evening, with security tightened across all major Australian domestic and international airports as investigators search several homes across the city.

Local media on Monday reported that the men, who have not yet been charged, planned to use poisonous gas or a crude bomb disguised as a meat mincer, although details of the alleged plot have not been confirmed by police.

"The Etihad Airways aviation security team is assisting the Australian Federal Police with its investigation and the matter is ongoing," the Abu Dhabi-based carrier said in a statement.

"Etihad is complying fully with the enhanced security measures at airports in Australia and monitoring the situation closely. Safety is the airline's number one priority."

Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi, which could have carried up to 500 people, was the target.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said on Sunday an improvised explosive device was involved.

Unidentified officials told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the suspects reportedly Lebanese-Australian might have links to the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan told the national broadcaster he would not comment on the IS links, but stressed the significance of the attack if it had taken place.

What is very clear is that, if these allegations were to have gone ahead, it would have been just an enormously dreadful thing to have happened to our country, he said late Monday.

"It's clear that this has been inspired by radical Islamic ideology.

We're obviously looking at the links that they have to the organisation within the Middle East, but there's nothing further that I can say about that at this stage, he added.

Australia's national terror alert level was raised in September 2014 amid concerns over attacks by individuals inspired by organisations such as IS.

A total of 12 attacks, before the latest one, have been prevented in the past few years and 70 people have been charged.

Several terror attacks have taken place in Australia in recent years, including a Sydney cafe siege in 2014 which saw two hostages killed.



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AUSTRALIA: Australian Economy Benefiting From Chinese Tourists

The boom in Chinese tourism to Australia is continuing to provide a huge boost to the Australian economy, an economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said on Friday.

Senior economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said that even as the Australian dollar strengthens, the tourist levels should continue to rise.

I think we have seen signs of the growth rate easing compared to twelve or fifteen months ago, with growth rates now at 8 to 10 percent per annum.

The pace of acceleration has certainly slowed, but the quantum in terms of the number of tourists will continue to grow," Sebastian said.

The economist said inflow of tourists have significant knock-on effects for the overall Australian economy.

It feeds a lot of different sectors, from transport to retail, to cafes and restaurants, even the support sectors around food and deliveries.

It is providing a big win, and you can see it in a couple of the key capital cities across the eastern seaboard.

But, it was not just the major capital cities in Australia that are benefiting the most economically from this tourism boom, and Sebastian identified one city in particular where tourists from China have had one of the biggest positive impacts of all.

If you look at Hobart, which is a smaller eco-system and any sort of tourism impact is felt in an even bigger fashion, because it just feeds through the economy a lot quicker.

So, I think its Chinese tourism a very big positive, and I think it is supporting a lot of the capital cities, particularly on the eastern seaboard.



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AUSTRALIA: Chinese Tourists Adventure In Australia

More Chinese travelers are coming to Australia and seeking unique, personalized experiences, according to an authority with Tourism Australia.

"Chinese travelers are more confident, more adventurous, and more experiential, and they are making more local Australian friends as they travel. To me, this is the true spirit of friendship between two countries, manifested through rapid development in tourism exchange," Andy Jiang, China Country Manager of Tourism Australia,said.

In a recent trip to South Australia, he met two young Chinese couples travelling through Port Lincoln, a beautiful spot on Eyre Peninsula.

They were young, full of passion for travel, and were telling me great experiences that they just had -- tasting fresh oysters from the ocean at Coffin Bay, swimming with sea lions at Baird Bay, gazing at beautiful stars at night in the Flinders Ranges,he said.

What we are seeing are more and more Chinese travelers are now going beyond the gateway cities of Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast, and they are travelling through some of the best regional locations in Australia and are having a fantastic time, he added.

China is by far Australia's fastest growing and highest spending international market, he said. It is also Australia's fourth-biggest market for international business events spending and third-biggest in terms of international business events arrivals, Jiang said.

In 2016, almost 1.2 million Chinese visited Australia and spent over 9 billion U.S. dollars, up 18 percent year on year. The China market has the potential to be worth 13 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

Many of those driving the growth are affluent and independently-minded travelers who are young, inquisitive and have a sense of adventure.

They are interested in the stunning natural resources, art and culture programs in Australia, he noted, adding that these have also become the focus of Australia's marketing campaigns in China.

To attract the country's young tourists, Tourism Australia has taken targeted measures such as using Virtual Reality (VR) and 360 degree videos to provide an immersive experience showing off Australia's aquatic and coastal attractions.

The year 2017 marks the China-Australia Year of Tourism and the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which Jiang believes will be a boost for promoting Australia as an attractive destination.

He pointed out that tourism is an important industry for both countries, bringing jobs and business opportunities to cities and rural communities alike.

As part of initiatives to mark the China-Australia Year of Tourism, Tourism Australia is working to implement a pilot ten-year visa for Chinese travelers, enabling them to apply online in the Chinese language.

The milestone policy to open air space has significantly increased flights between China and Australia.

Many tourist attractions in Australia have increased their investment in the outbound Chinese market. For example, the Bridge Climb, a major attraction in Sydney, will launch tailored Mandarin guide services in April this year.

Following Premier Li Keqiang's official visit to Australia last week, the two countries agreed to build on the China-Australia Year of Tourism to organize promotional activities and encourage people-to-people exchanges.

The more Chinese people visit our nation and the more Australians come here to China, the better we understand each other and the more opportunities we have for further engagement and cooperation at every level, he said.