Business class flyers doing it tough down under

Gold Coast business travellers desperate to regain inflight comforts have tried to convince Virgin Blue to introduce a business class and will have a similar crack at Qantas next week.
Virgin has already politely said no and hopes now rest on convincing Qantas to fly more two-class Boeing 737s to the Queensland resort area, touted as Australia’s sixth-biggest population centre.
The arrival of Jetstar means hard times have befallen well-heeled business- class travellers in the first leisure destinations targeted by the new airline.
Qantas has reduced two-class flights to the Gold Coast from Sydney and ended them to Melbourne. The mainline airline has pulled out of the Sunshine Coast and Proserpine and is planning the same for Hamilton Island.
Many former high-flyers are now forced to endure flights with the T-shirt brigade with nary a free glass of bubbly in sight — and they’re not happy.
They resent being forced to check in at least 30 minutes before a flight, not being able to check through luggage and paying for excess baggage if they exceed the 20kg limit.
Property developer Alec Wallis has been flying Qantas business class between homes in Sydney and the Gold Coast once or twice a week for as long as he can remember.
He says the reduction in business-class services means he is forced to fly economy on the newly fledged Jetstar.
But the remaining Qantas flights — reduced from three a day to two — do not fit his schedule.
“The message from Qantas seems to be that they don’t regard the Gold Coast as a business centre anymore,” he said.
A Gold Coast business lobby group will demand Qantas improves services to the area in a meeting next week. A $127million convention centre opened on the Gold Coast last month.
Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Don Jones said the reduction of full-service flights by Qantas to Sydney and Melbourne was a huge blow to the area’s business reputation.
“It means the underlying assumption is the Gold Coast is only a cheap family destination, which is totally wrong,” he said.
While the airlines agree there are plenty of small to medium enterprises on the coast, they say these tend to be quick to take advantage of cheaper economy fares.
Qantas said it was lack of demand that led to its decision to reduce the number of two-class flights from Sydney to the Gold Coast and cut them out to Melbourne completely.
The flying kangaroo has made no secret of the fact that Jetstar is targeting predominantly leisure-based markets where profits are marginal and there is little demand for business class travel.
The arrival of Virgin Blue split the Queensland markets and the Brisbane-based carrier is now estimated to have about 50 per cent of the traffic on Gold Coast routes.