Qantas, Virgin Australia into stiff fight for business fliers

Australia’s national carrier Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia have once again upped the ante and are currently bracing for a tough competition to attract premium customers in a big way for traveling on trans-continental routes.

Media reports recently said that Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia have now revealed their plans to revamp their respective business class products on their Airbus A330 aircrafts operating between the east coast and Perth. The upgrade includes the installation of fully-flat beds and providing aisle access to all those taking business class flights in the coming months.

The reports said that though the upgrade would involve huge costs, the two airlines are quite hopeful that they are likely to retain customer’s loyalty and make profits through fares sale.

A recent study by the government indicated that the domestic fares on business class have increased over the past one year. This has been despite the stiff competition between Virgin Australia and Qantas Airways. The data also cited that the weakness in leisure market resulted in sharp decline of economy class airfares.

Qantas Airways launched its first Airbus A330 aircraft a year ago. This will be the airline’s first such aircraft to be equipped with new business class seats, which will be outfitted in December this year. The airline said that its entire domestic as well as international fleet of Airbus A330 aircrafts will be revamped by mid-2016. 

Virgin Australia has however retweeked its business class product and will be offering fully-flat beds to its customers traveling in business class. The direct aisle access will not be offered to the customers now, but it could be done in future after seeing the similar product by Qantas Airways.