Japan Travel Trade Weekly News
Keeping you abreast of what's going on in the
Japanese travel and tourism industries.
News consolidated by Travel Vision, Inc. updated every week.
Qantas Airways Aims to Establish "New-Age Travel" in Market, Eying
Expansion of International Operation in 2010 to Enhance
Competitiveness
March 2008
Masahiro Ogino, Regional General Manager Japan, Qantas Airways
Limited, mentioned at the Japan Australia Mission (JAM) on February
22 hosted by Tourism Australia (TA), "We must be innovative to launch
"new-age" travel products to meet our customer needs," with a view to
increasing competition among destinations to be brought by a foreseen
expansion of international flight operation both at Narita and Haneda
airports in Tokyo in 2010.
In this regard, he appealed to the travel agents for the
continued support, citing, "Australia enjoys a variety of resorts as
ever and offers many tips and hints for new travel. Together with the
travel agents and Tourism Australia, Qantas would like to motivate
the customers to visit Australian destinations."
"Our seat load factor is extremely high," Ogino said, driven by
the strong business demand enhanced by excellent Australian economy
and its abundant natural resources. The traffic from Australia shows
a vibrant growth when traffic from Japan becomes sluggish in the low
season, thus complementing each other. From January to February, ski
traffic from Australia to Japan shows a robust demand. Many days show
the flights fully booked, following a suspension of the Sapporo route.
However, when Narita and Haneda airports increase the slots, new
airlines will get increased chances to start service to the competing
destinations. Therefore, it is imperative, the airline said, to
enhance the competitiveness, providing products which attract the
customers before new competitors penetrate the market.
"Selling seats in aircraft is no longer a main marketing
objective of airlines," said Ogino. "Airlines must observe the market
in which we are." Taking an example of the younger generation who are
no longer so enthusiastic about overseas travel as they used to be,
Ogino added, "We must find out why the young people are not attracted
to traveling and what they spend the money on instead."
In developing new products, Qantas is hoping to feature 20% of
the total travel products with new travel themes while the airline
continues to offer the rest with popular programs including Nature
and the World Heritages.
For instance, in order to market the repeaters, which is a
burning issue for Australia, Ogino indicated that Qantas will make
efforts to promote not only major package tours, but also FITs and
tours tailored for the senior-citizen. In the near term, "Fly and
Drive" will be featured in tour programs. Wine, dining and sports are
gradually becoming a theme of travel which, he hopes, will attract
more travelers to Australia.
Women with the age bracket of 20 to 30 are our important customer
segment. To attract this customer segment, Ogino said, "The
presentation plays an important role," highlighting the resorts with
many high quality pictures, for instance.
Travel agents are taking a risk introducing new products and
Qantas is ready to share the risk. The airline stresses that it will
reduce the burden on the travel agents, underlining its policy to
cooperate with them.
Since summer 2007, Qantas started approaching travel agents who
have not yet sold Australian destinations by providing them the sales
kits. Some seven travel agents have in the meantime started selling
Australia.
Japan-China Aviation Talks to Start in Jinan, China from February 27;
Haneda/ Nanyuan Charter Operation Also on Agenda
March 2008
Aviation officials of Japan and China will hold a 3-day talk in
Jinan, China from February 27 to 29. During the round of talks, they
will discuss various aviation issues between the two countries within
the framework of medium-term objectives and will also exchange views
on other agenda including the passenger charter flights between
Tokyo's Haneda and Beijing's Nanyuan airports, previously proposed by
Tetsuo Fuyushiba, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and
Tourism, to be inaugurated in time for the Beijing Olympic Games.
The delegation from Japan will be led by Ryuhei Maeda, Deputy
Director-General, Civil Aviation Bureau of MLIT, and the Chinese
delegation will be represented by Li Jiang min, Director, Department
of International Affairs and Cooperation, General Administration of
Civil Aviation of China.
The delegations will negotiate aviation issues including mid-and
long-term objectives regarding the further expansion of Narita Haneda
airports in Tokyo, Japan and the completion of the third runway at
Beijing and Shanghai airports in China. According to the
international air transport division of the administration department
of MILT, no negotiation between Japan and China had materialized
since the last air talks were held in Wuhan, China in 2007 and, in
fact, an outlook for the forthcoming negotiation is unknown as China
places its immediate priority on the Beijing Olympic Games.
Furthermore, a fact that Nanyuan airport is operated by the
Chinese military makes it difficult to speculate how things are
actually progressing in China. The Japanese delegation anticipates to
find out about the progress in China during the round of aviation
talks, said MLIT.
As far as the administrative procedures are concerned, it would
still be technically feasible to start charter flight operations
between the two cities in time for the Olympic Games, as MLIT added,
should the decision be taken by the end of June, not taking into
considerations timing for charter flight sales.
Starting with Service to Okinawa, Hong Kong Express to Commence
Scheduled Service to Okayama, Kagoshima, Hiroshima, Nagoya
March 2008
Hong Kong Express (UO) announced it will start a twice-weekly
service between Okinawa and Hong Kong from April 3, 2008. Following
the first service to Japan, the Hong Kong-based airline will expand
its scheduled service successively to five cities in Japan from the
end of April: Okayama from April 26, Kagoshima from April 28,
Hiroshima from May 1 and Nagoya from May 15, 2008.
A Boeing B737-800 will be put into service on these routes.
Presently, the airline owns four aircraft of this type, to which it
plans to add six more and the fleet size is expected to reach 10 by
the end of 2008.
Prior to the inauguration of service to Okinawa in April, a sales
office will be opened in Okinawa on March 3. Further, a liaison
office will be opened in Tokyo which will oversee the start-up of
scheduled flights between Hong Kong and various cities in Japan and
charter operations to other regional cities including Sendai.
The start-up of the service to Japan by Hong Kong Express is
based on the new Hong Kong/ Japan Open Skies Agreement which lifted
the capacity restrictions on flights between Hong Kong and all
Japanese cities except the Tokyo Metropolitan region.
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