Boof wrote:There is allegedly some trouble at Cobham. Can't attract or retain pilots for the 717's and dragging/dragged chain on new pay agreement, as such QF have little choice but to continue using the 737's in and out of HBA post the end of March. They aren't replacing all 717 services by the looks of it as the Cobham 717 base is still open and being recruited for (advert in Friday's Australian listed Hobart as one of many). Over the summer it's been a mixture of 717's and 737's to both MEL & SYD, where it appears to be standardising the 717 on the SYD route and the 737 on the MEL route.
Yes, the Cobham HBA base is still open, but from December 2017 there has only been one crew's worth, down from two. This is interesting because I believe there is a government subsidised contract for two crew's worth of jobs. The advert for more jobs suggests the 717 will be staying; although, I reckon they'd be better off keeping the 73H on the first HBA-MEL, one 717 on the first HBA-SYD and using the second 717 to do an early HBA-CBR. Aren't there more 717s being converted to two-class?
Just to clarify QF's use of 73Hs to HBA over this period:
QF announced (months in advance) that 73Hs would replace 717s for three days per week (Thu, Fri, Sat) on one HBA-MEL and one HBA-SYD service over the peak summer season from mid-December until the end of March due to demand. This was an undersell, because there were addidtional 73H replacements scheduled on peak days, together with the 5 return HBA-BNE 73H seasonal services which was never announced this year.
Then, at short notice (only a week or two from memory), all HBA-SYD 717 services were replaced by 73H from 2 December 2017 until 24 March 2018. This meant a 73H overnighted in HBA daily except Saturday.
Finally, from 25 March 2018, the HBA-SYD reverts back to all 717 operation, with the exception of a new weekly 73H service on Sunday bringing the frequency on this route up to 14 per week. From the same date, the roughly 5 daily 717s on HBA-MEL get replaced with roughly 4 daily 73Hs.
Boof wrote:
There was an article in a local PPP newspaper where the local government complained about the cuts, and the TT response was that this was just a suspension due to lack of aircraft and the service would return when aircraft became available.
Boof wrote:What I can't believe, election funding or not, is that TT don't have the schedule loaded for May and it's Mid-March. How on earth do you expect to drive forward bookings on routes when they don't have it locked and loaded in the first place? No wonder pax get frustrated when TT changes its schedule.
Yes, TT chop and change schedule timings at short notice.
In terms of estimating demand, there are a few indications the TT HBA-OOL is not doing badly:
1) The available fare prices for HBA-OOL are well above the base level throughout April.
2) VA has added several additional HBA-BNE flights over March and April due to demand.
3) TT has added several additional HBA-MEL flights over March and April due to demand.
4) Estimates from BITRE figures for December 2017 show that together JQ's HBA-ADL and TT's HBA-OOL averaged about 80% load factor.This calculation can't be split due to these routes being non-competitive; but, if say the ADL was doing better at 85%, then the OOL would still be at 75%. The January 2018 figures should be published in a week or so.