Aidan wrote:muzzamo wrote:I would love for them to remove the curfew completely.
We would see a STACK more international flights coming through Adelaide, because by offering the airlines more choice they can slot Adelaide in at the end of another destination.
It has been pointed out to me that lifting the curfew would result in more interntional flights coming here, not because they could slot Adelaide in at the end of another destination, but because they could slot Adelaide in
on the way to another destination: Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington.
Howdy fellas.
Lucky for us we have Melbourne 700km away with no curfew. This gives us a perfect example of what might happen with no curfew here.
In Melbourne all the Asian airlines with only one flight per day (Korean, Air China etc) arrive between 8am-1pm and depart straight away. The only ones that fly at night are the larger airlines with one midday-ish flight already (Singapore, Cathay etc). This would suggest that lifting the Adelaide curfew would not attract any more Asian carriers, as they prefer to arrive at midday-ish times anyway. In any case, Singapore/Cathay would more likely increase capacity from A330s to 777-300s before any new airlines arrived from Asia.
The two airlines that fly one flight per day from Melbourne to Los Angeles are United and V Australia; these arrive and depart at about the same times as the Asian airlines. Regardless, most US traffic goes through Sydney, and the AUS-US market is flooded atm; there is zero chance of a Adelaide-LA flight, curfew or not.
This leaves Middle East traffic. Etihad flies one flight to Melbourne a day, this arrives at 7.15pm and leaves at 11.15pm. Qatar Airways is about to begin a daily Melbourne flight (first one arrives on Sunday) this arrives at 9.55pm and departs at 11.25pm. These times mean the plane leaves the Middle East around midnight, after the evening flights arrive from Europe, and arrives back in the Middle East around dawn, in time to connect with the morning flights to Europe.
The best time for Middle East airlines to land in Adelaide is obviously in the evening, departing after the current curfew begins. The removal or reduction of the current curfew might significantly increase the likelihood of a Middle Eastern airline flying direct to Adelaide.
Emirates Airline has been expanding like crazy for years and would be the obvious candidate for a Middle Eastern airline flying to Adelaide. Emirates flies to nineteen European destinations (Vienna, Nice, Paris, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Athens, Milan, Rome, Venice, Moscow, Zürich, Istanbul, Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Manchester and Newcastle); in comparison Singapore serves eleven, Qantas two, Malaysia six and Cathay four.
Given that the Etihad plane sits in Melbourne for four hours, Etihad might also serve a curfew-free Adelaide, running Abu Dhabi - Adelaide - Melbourne - Abu Dhabi. They'd only have to move from an A340-500 to a A340-600.
With the 700km less to travel and 30min time difference between Adelaide and Melbourne, the curfew would only have to be reduced to midnight-6am to allow this to happen.
Fingers crossed!
Chess
