Qantas to Shanghai and Bombay

Qantas said it will relaunch direct flights to China’s financial hub of Shanghai and India’s largest city, Bombay, as it taps growth opportunities in the burgeoning markets.
The airline said Monday it also planned to increase flights or capacity to Hong Kong, Japan, the United States and New Zealand in a three-year growth drive.
“We believe it is the future for us — India and China,” Qantas Airways Ltd. executive general manager John Borghetti told reporters.
“You can understand that when you look at their gross domestic product growing (annually) by about seven percent”.
Two new Airbus A330-300 jets would fly between Sydney and Shanghai from December 2 and Borghetti said Qantas expected to add even more services to China, which has one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Qantas began flights to Shanghai and Bombay in 1996, but axed them as an economy measure in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
“Over the last three years we have seen a steady growth in inbound and outbound travel for both Australia and China,” Borghetti said.
“Australia continues to be a popular destination for holidays and our secondary and teriary institutions attract a high percentage of students from China.”
Official figures show 176,000 visitors from China arrived in Australia last year and the number is expected to grow to 960,000 by 2013.
From September, Qantas will also begin three direct flights a week from Sydney to Bombay, pending Indian government approval, as the number of Indians travelling overseas is expected to rise from 4.7 million last year to 50 million in 2020.
Borghetti said Hong Kong was also on the airline’s radar.
“You will certainly see Qantas playing a much bigger role in the Hong Kong market, not just as a destination but as a mid-point to London,” Borghetti said.
Qantas now flies to Hong Kong 28 times a week and has applied to the International Air Services Commission for the right to operate three Boeing 747-400 services via Hong Kong to Britain.
Borghetti said the growth drive also included plans to increase services to the United States and New Zealand, while the company was increasing capacity to Japan.
“Qantas is very much focused on growth over the next three years,” he said.
“Although we compete with 44 international carriers that operate into this country (Australia)…. we believe that growth is the future for this airline.”
Qantas is one of the world’s most profitable airlines after posting a record interim profit of 283 million US dollars in February.
Last week the airline saw its budget domestic off-shoot Jetstar take to the skies for the first time as it strives to wrestle back market share from no-frills carrier Virgin Blue, part-owned by Richard Branson.