China Southern Airlines A380 to Sydney - Part 2: competitors to feel more pricing pressure

This is the second part of a report on China Southern's A380 deployment to Sydney, a move that will gain public interest from the angle of a previously obscure carrier bringing in the world's largest aircraft to one of the world's most iconic cities. While the capacity increase is large at 41%, the 1,554 additional weekly seats have been put in by or been exceeded by other carriers serving Sydney in recent times.

What makes China Southern's A380 deployment to Sydney notable - and worrisome - is not the sheer number of seats but the low yields they will be priced at. China Southern is offering return economy tickets from Australia to Europe during the European summer - before the A380's entry and capacity increase - for as low as AUD1,102 (USD1,143), half the price of typical fares only two years ago. Business class fares have seen similar percentage cuts over the last two years, with return business class to Europe for AUD5,819 (USD6,034).