Qantas says it will increase flights to Japan in August 2015 with services to Tokyo Haneda Airport as the carrier reports yield improvements on its domestic and international operations.
The airline group said yields – an industry term measuring average airfares per passenger – on its Qantas and Jetstar domestic operations were higher in October compared with the prior corresponding period.
Yields on Qantas’s international services also rose in October, compared with a year ago, meaning yields across the group have risen for a second straight month.
“For October 2014, Qantas Group yields were higher than the prior corresponding period, the second consecutive month of positive growth,” Qantas said in its monthly operating statistics released on Friday.
The improvement in yields comes as the airline was on track to post an underlying profit before tax in the first half of 2014/15 amid a more benign capacity environment and lower fuel prices.
Meanwhile, Qantas told travel agents on Friday the airline would add a new service to Haneda on top of its existing daily flight to Tokyo Narita Airport.
While there was no information on routes and flight times available at this time, Qantas said it hoped to have fare information for Haneda flights, such as schedules and aircraft type before the end of the year.
“Some schedule changes may be made to the Narita service so that the combined services offer better flexibility for customers,” Qantas said.
“This additional capacity to Japan will allow Qantas to capitalise on the significant growth in the Australian-Japan market, and has been made possible as a result of improvements in the utilisation of our fleet.”
Currently, Qantas mainline’s sole service to Japan is a daily flight between Sydney and Tokyo Narita, while Jetstar’s Australian operations fly to both Tokyo Narita and Osaka.
Haneda is located much closer to Tokyo city than Narita and has been predominantly used by Japanese carriers as a domestic airport.
However, in recent years the Japanese government has opened up Haneda to more international operations, including to foreign airlines.
In other news, Qantas said its foreign ownership level continued to fall, dropping to 41.3 per cent on November 5, from 42.8 per cent in late October.
