ny The Boyd Group in Evergreen, Colo.I think it's going to be very successful.The win for D/FW comes at the expense of San Francisco's International Airport. Qantas will end its nonstop service there May 14, the carrier said in a release.Flying to DFW is an important step for Qantas as we expand and improve our international services,chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.The carrier will use a Boeing 747-400ER to fly from D/FW to Brisbane, Australia, and then on to the country's largest city, Sydney. The plane can't quite flight directly to Sydney from D/FW; Brisbane is 276 miles closer. The flight back from Sydney would not stop.At 8,348 air miles, the D/FW-to-Brisbane flight would rank as the fifth-longest nonstop flown. The Sydney-to-D/FW leg at 8,624 miles would rank as the third-longest. The flights would take about 17 hours.Qantas said it will run a premium coach product and a business class on the 747, which seats about 416 passengers.The announcement of the new service was pushed back from last fall, first because of the explosion of Qantas' A380 engine in November and more recently because of torrential flooding at Brisbane, which has isolated the city.The arrival of Qantas will give D/FW 44 international destinations to go with 144 domestic cities. The airport will provide $3.1 million for Qantas, most of which will cover its landing fees, terminal rents and other charges for two years, Fegan said. The incentive package will also cover some marketing efforts in North Texas.Qantas flight to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and it also flight to New York after stopping in Los Angeles. D/FW will be its first mid-continent stop.Aviation experts such as Boyd have said that the airports with the best chances of adding international service will be the ones that can link airlines in alliances to other big alliance hubs, and that theory is on display with the Qantas flights.
Qantas, Fort Worth-based American and British Airways are all Oneworld alliance members, though Londoners aren't likely to flight to Australia over D/FW it's far faster to get there flying east.American flies nearly 800 flights a day from D/FW Airport, providing both feed traffic to fill potential Qantas flights as well as a network of connections that Boyd said will strengthen Oneworld.It'll open up Latin American cities to Australia and all of the eastern and southern U.S.,Boyd said.That's a big deal.Texas did about $1.6 billion in trade with Australia in 2009, U.S. census data shows. Climate, terrain and cultural similarities suggest there could be plenty of tourism interest from both continents.
