Qantas to trim Asian operations

05 June 2008

Australian airline Qantas, which last week announced a five per cent reduction in domestic capacity, now plans to scrap or reduce several of its services to Japan and Southeast Asia.

Qantas will trim its thrice-weekly Melbourne-Tokyo service and the Sydney-Tokyo flights as rising fuel prices and operating coasts start biting.

The airlines said maintaining the existing schedule to Japan would cost it an extra A$ 100 million ($95million/£49million) at current fuel pieces.

Qantas said it will now work with individual markets and look for opportunities as conditions improve. The airlines also said it would  reduce staff and ground some aircraft.

Qantas expects its fuel bill to go up by 35 per cent to A$2 billion in the 2008-09 financial year.

Qantas' budget carrier Jetstar will end its service from Cairns to Osaka and Nagoya. It will also replace 14 flights a week from Cairns to Tokyo on Qantas with daily flights on Jetstar.