Summary
- Six airlines have 20 US-Australia routes between December 2023 and March 2024.
- Qantas and American collectively have 42% of flights.
- Two routes are served double every day, the very best frequency to this point.
There are 20 routes between the US and Australia from December to March. Amongst other developments, it’s due to United Airlines’ brand-new route between Los Angeles and Brisbane and the June 2023 launch of Qantas from Sydney to Latest York JFK via Auckland. They construct on the late 2022 start of United’s San Francisco-Brisbane (which the above photo celebrates) and Qantas’ Melbourne-Dallas Fort Value.
Six airlines, 20 routes
The network is summarized in the next table in alphabetical order of airline name. While Qantas has probably the most extensive network, partly helped by serving fellow oneworld partner American Airlines hubs, United has probably the most flights within the examined 4 months.
Photo: Ryan Fletcher | Shutterstock
United would still have more services than Qantas even when that airline’s lower-cost unit, Jetstar, was included, although not if Qantas and American were combined. Indeed, the 2 giants collectively have about 42% of all Australia-US services.
Airline |
Variety of routes |
Routes (December-March flights, aircraft) |
---|---|---|
American |
One |
|
Delta |
One |
|
Hawaiian |
One |
|
Jetstar |
Two |
|
Qantas |
Eight |
|
United |
Seven |
|
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United’s record on San Francisco-Sydney
Only two routes are served twice every day: United between San Francisco and Sydney and Delta from Los Angeles to Sydney. Each now are at the very best regular frequencies, based on Cirium data.
In response to US Department of Transportation T-100 data, United launched the long, 7,417-mile (11,937 km)route in 1994. It deployed the Boeing 747-400 for a few years. The 777-200ER materialized on the route in 2014, followed by the 787-9 in 2016. Three years later, it was the turn of the 777-300ER; flights are actually entirely by the massive type.
Photo: Markus Mainka I Shutterstock
Cirium shows that United has had every day service on the route for a few years. While it has had more services at particular times, it has never had a double every day operation – until now.
Frequencies rose to twice every day on October twenty eighth, 2023. This was the day before airlines within the Northern Hemisphere, like United, switched to winter schedules. It’s going to run twice every day from the US until March twenty eighth, 2024, just before United switches to summer schedules. For now, it’s as follows, with all times local:
- San Francisco-Sydney: UA829 (20:00-06:20+2), UA863 (22:50-09:15+2)
- Sydney-San Francisco: UA830 (12:10-06:55; same day), UA870 (14:00-08:45; same day)
132,000+ passengers
Using T-100 data indicates that United carried 132,363 roundtrip passengers between San Francisco and Sydney from January to August 2023. With 183,400 seats on the market, it achieved a mean load factor of just 72%.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
While definitely low in itself, it shouldn’t be considered in isolation. Given it has increased frequency to the very best yet, it should be very confident, including due to its Virgin Australia partnership. In those eight months, data shows that :
- 56% of passengers transited to other flights in San Francisco to/from Sydney
- 25% were point-to-point (they only flew between the 2 cities)
- 14% ‘bridged’ Sydney San Francisco (e.g., Melbourne-Sydney-San Francisco-Denver)
- 5% transited Sydney to/from San Francisco (e.g., Adelaide-Sydney-San Francisco)
Will you be flying across the Pacific soon? In that case, tell us within the comments section.