Qantas Ending International Service From Perth

27th Feb 2014

Qantas has seen its glory days vanish in the haze as it continues to downgrade operations along with fleet reduction in its bid to temper losses that it has accumulated in recent years.

The cessation of its Singapore service out of Perth will finally see the bustling capital of Western Australia without international link, thus joining Adelaide as a Qantas hub without flights overseas.

The flight QF77/78 that plies between Perth and the city-state of Singapore will have its last hurrah in July this year.

The termination of international operations at its Perth hub will enable the cash-trapped airline to cut costs in its effort to temper its six-month loss of $252 million that it had posted from July to December 2013 alone.

The airline deemed the Perth-Singapore route as underperforming and possibly handing over its international operations to its partner airline, Emirates.

Emirates, the Middle East biggest airline and one of the world's five largest carriers in terms of route network covered and passengers flown. With the exit of Qantas' international operations from Perth, Emirates is said to have big plans for the WA capital including the deployment of a A380 jumbo jet in one of its Perth-Dubai thrice-daily service.

Perth is not actually completely dropped from Qantas' network as its two budget subsidiaries, Jetstar and Jetstar Asia, continue to serve Perth with international flights to Singapore and Indonesia.

Even without Qantas, Perth still offers extensive connection to Asia with most of the region's major airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Thai Airways maintain daily operations between the WA capital and Asia's major destinations. These airlines also offer extensive connections to Europe out of their main hub.