The right product for the right job, stabilisation of airfares, fleet renewal, long-haul Sunrise project and Perth as the second major for airport domestic and international routes were hot topics for Cam Wallace, CEO Qantas International & Freight, at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific 2024 in Brisbane today.

Wallace, who took on the role in July 2023, is responsible for the financial, commercial and operational performance of international flying and the freight business as well as overseeing Global Sales and Distribution and Alliances.

“We’re back to international capacity, Jetstar is going quite quickly and Qantas is also rebuilding our capacity. What we’re seeing is seats coming back into the market and fares normalising,” Wallace said, forecasting that fares will continue to moderate in the next six months, “and then that moderation will level out”.

“What we’ve been focused on and really, actually more fixated on the last 12 months has been operational resilience and operational performance and really delivering with our customers,” he said.

“Things like on-time performance, on-time arrival, completion rates, making sure that each and every day, we are delivering to what customers want.

“We’ve still got a long way to go, and we still, you know, you never really get to the destination with many customers’ needs, because they change all the time, but we’re really, really happy with the progress,” he said.

While pent up demand and revenge travel post Covid did not require heavy marketing it has since dissipated, he expects that to change.

“What we’re seeing now are some encouraging signs in terms of our demand outlook, because whilst we are going to the market with activity in a more regular basis, we’ve seen the market react really strongly to that.

“So the market is responding to good tactical market activity. And the other thing I’d say is we still see customers at a high-level prioritising travel over other categories.”

In the domestic market, he said corporate and resource travel continues to grow, and also in the long haul space there is big movement, which I think we’ve seen across the industry in the last three to five years of move towards premium cabins, we’re seeing that too.

“That plays well to our future, and it’s certainly a dynamic that we can see continual growth and stability.”

Updating aircraft to accommodate the demand is high on the priority list too, he said but Qantas, like other carriers is hit by supply issues and delays in orders.

“We’ve got close to 200 firm orders, so we’re in the midst of embarking on the biggest fleet renewal program the organisation’s ever had, in its over 100-year history. I think we took 11 aircraft last year and we take 20 this year,” he said.

“There’s a there’s a large array of opportunities for new city piers that we just wouldn’t be able to achieve with our current fleet.”

The refit of larger aircraft refurbs continues with eight A380s returned and two more to go.

“The last two aircraft will get reintegrated into our fleet in the next 18 months. The cabins are being refreshed. I mean, they’re really important aircraft for us, for constrained airports, so the likes of Sydney, LA and flights into Heathrow, where you’ve either got a constrained airport or you have a curfew.”

The new aircraft will also offer more premium seats and a greater range, including new routes, including out of Perth Airport, on the wish list.

“(The new fleet) it gives us the opportunity to start up and open up new routes which … our current aircraft don’t have the range to cover. But secondly, we can, we can build into thinner routes, and where we’re geographically located, that’s a huge opportunity for us.”

That offering could include Perth to Auckland, Perth to India and Brisbane to Bangkok, with Qantas focusing on “supercharging” the destination.

“Over time, (Perth will be) our second largest international destination, whether it’s Africa, whether it’s Europe or Asia, we see great potential, both for Jetstar and for Qantas as a gateway into Australia.”

Pulling out of Sydney-Shanghai, after 21 years in a “volatile” market was also on topic of questions for Wallace.

“The way that we in the short and medium term are proposing to serve China is, one, through co-share with China Eastern, and secondly, through connectivity, through Hong Kong.

“I continue to be convinced that market is oversupplied, and it’s very tough for us to get a market position against so much capacity and the kind of tighter capacity it is as well.”

Sustainable fuel will also be a focus with the national carrier, from 2028, having access to 500 million litres of SAF through its partnership with Airbus at Boeing.

Feature image: Paul Burton, of Aviation Week Network, interviews Cam Wallace (right)