Qantas shifts widebodies to international, restoring Asian presence despite no European connections

Singapore has long been Qantas' offshore international hub, where long haul traffic from Australian capital cities was fed into its European links. Only recently has Qantas focused on Asia as an end market and not a connection point on the "kangaroo route". The change was accelerated by the Qantas-Emirates partnership which prompted Qantas to move its European stopover hub from Asia to the Middle East. With the European flights redirected, Qantas had to reposition itself in Asia.

Initially that meant significant decreases to its Asia network, as capacity was redirected. But in early 2016 Qantas will have more flights from Australia to Asia than it had prior to the Emirates partnership. That is despite now not serving Europe over Asia. Seat capacity is catching up and will further grow as Qantas looks to expand in Asia; already an additional three weekly A330 services are planned for Asia. Driving the increase are a number of factors: Qantas' successful restructuring has lowered its cost base and made Asia profitable, there is growing inbound tourism and Qantas needs to re-deploy widebody aircraft out of the domestic market.