Sydney flights

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce confirmed the cuts this morning in a rebalance' of operations between Avalon and Tullamarine operations.He said introducing some Sydney flights to Tullamarine aimed to shore up Qantas profitability and market position but Avalon remained a vital destination on Jetstar's radar.

What we've done is rebalance the capacity on the Melbourne-Sydney route, which Avalon is such an important part of, and we felt that Melbourne-Sydney is obviously the biggest corporate route and biggest leisure market we operate in the country.We believe using both brands effectively is critical to future profitability and market position of the Qantas group, that's why we decided Jetstar would operate Melbourne Tullamarine to Sydney five times per day and that also involves us balancing the Avalon to Sydney operation which because of the capacity at Tullamarine goes from seven to four.

We still think there's huge opportunities at Avalon, it's still a great destination for Jetstar and having the combination of Tullamarine and Avalon for Jetstar is a unique combination.It allows Avalon to service the Geelong market, allows price competition between Avalon and Tullamarine airports and we very much see a future for operations there but we think the rebalancing is the right competive and market position and profitable outcome for the Qantas group at this stage.
Qantas posted a sales fall of 6.9 per cent to $14.55b in the 12 months to June in the face of global economic shutdown, swine flu and other factors including industrial action.