Qantas Update

Transcript

John SimeoneI think some of the key points that we wanted to ensure came across to everyone was the innovation in the airline space. Of course, with the introduction of the Dreamliner, the 787-9 for March next year, starting Perth-London. We've got ... The first 787 goes into operation in a couple of weeks, operating Melbourne-LA. It's really a case of just continuing to innovate, in terms of the aircraft space, and use technology and research to ensure that we really deliver on the customer preferences and the customers' values.

The Dreamliner only was delivered from Seattle about four weeks ago. It's doing some domestic flying for us at the moment, just so that we're getting the hours up for our pilots and getting the crew used to the aircraft. Feedback has been absolutely amazing. I think our marketing team has done a phenomenal job in promoting the Dreamliner. It's not just about the benefit it brings to our customers. That's an important part, but it's also a real uplifter internally in the organisation for our people.

We think it's a real game-changer for tourism in Australia. Air Qantas is a significant contributor to the tourism industry and I think, if you think about the value and the businesses that sort of feed off the importance of airports and airlines, in particular airlines, I think it's important that we continue to evolve and use that aircraft. It's made up a little bit differently. It's only got 236 seats on it. It's lighter. Some of the technology that's into it enables us to do some of the flying that we're planning on doing and, in particular, the first ever Perth to Europe flight.

I think, importantly, when you talk about innovation, it's not just about the aircraft. It's about what we're doing onboard with our customers. We're doing a fair bit of research. We're the first airline to do a partnership with Sydney University and the Charles Perkins Centre around research into the impacts of jet lag, research into menu design, research into the lighting on the aircraft. The innovation takes place in the first step around how you build the aircraft that's capable of getting and doing the flying that we need it to do, but then there's that other part around really understanding the benefits to an individual and to the customer and the impact that type of flying ... You're on an aircraft for 17 hours. What's ... How do you feel when you get off? We're doing a lot of research into how does that really evolve and what's the benefit. Once we drill down into that, what else can we innovate to understand?

We're also going to soon put a wearable technology on a few volunteer customers where we'll be able to track the impact and the benefit or the impact of jet lag and what that has on our customers. It's the first partnership ever taken by an airline and a university, in making sure that we really understand the impact of that type of that travel and the benefits it can provide if you're looked after really well onboard. We think we've got the crew and the customer service to do that, but we just want to really understand the intricacies of customer preferences and customer impacts on that type of flying.

I think Emirates was a key partner for ours in 2012 and still is. We've got ... We've just recently had renewed our five year arrangement with Emirates. Absolutely over the last few years, it has been a significant change and a significant transformation in the business. One thing we'll never do is become complacent or arrogant. I think it's important that Allen continues to really push the executive team at Qantas around. Don't ...

We need to be new. We need to be innovative. We need to look after our customers. Put the customer at the centre of everything you do and let's make decisions around that. You can't be complacent in the airline industry. Economic indicators will tell you and history will tell you that there's one thing you can never do, and that's just think things are going to roll on. You have to continue to innovate. You've got to think about improving technology, improving customer insights, and using the insights and the data to have a better customer outcome at the end of the day.

I think, from a partnership perspective, absolutely critical part of our transformation when we started this in 2012. Also, a continuing key partner for us, for Qantas, heading forward with the possibility of just ... When you think about travelling from Australia, you can go through Singapore, you can fly through Perth, or you can absolutely fly through Dubai, as well. It really ... You talk about customer choice and customer preference. It really gives the customer in Australia, and not just the corporate customer, the leisure customer, the SME customer, an absolute opportunity to make their choice for whichever way they want to go.

I don't think it's a case of owning the relationship. I think we have an extremely good relationship with our key corporate customers in Australia. We have a distribution network which is framed around the TMC being a key component of facilitating the booking with the corporate customer. We like to see this as a relationship and we have great relationships in Australia with the corporate customers, as do the TMC, so I think it's important that we have a very good relationship with the trade. We continue to do that and we continue to work with the trade in terms of ensuring that we're getting the right information, we're getting the right data so that we can provide insights back to our customers so that they can adjust their travel bookings or their travel patterns if required, but also so that we can provide more value to the customer.

When I talk about value, I don't just mean a price from A to B. Value, for me, is also about how does the customer utilise the lounge framework? How does the customer get to the airport? How does the customer decide they want to use their leisure travel when they're travelling with their family and see the benefit that a corporate agreement has with Qantas and the benefit that brings there? When you're travelling through a lounge for your leisure holiday, for your leisure trips and you're travelling with your family when you're used to travelling alone, it's fantastic to be able to provide value to your broader family so that they get to enjoy what you enjoy from a work perspective. We know how time poor we are and when ... We want to ensure that those types of strategies and those types of value adds are being enjoyed by the corporate customer, as well.

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