Qantas Pursues Breakaway Distribution Strategy Despite Grumbling From Some Travel Agencies
Photo Credit: Qantas 100th anniversary celebration in Sydney. Qantas / Gregg Porteous
Skift Take
Qantas has been coy about its bold distribution strategy launched last year, rarely talking about it since the pandemic struck. Here's an update from the company, plus what you need to know that's missing in its official statements.
What a difference a year and a pandemic make. It's hard to recall it was only August 2019 when Qantas Airways began charging travel agencies globally for booking tickets outside of its new "Qantas Channel" as part of a long-term plan to tame its distribution costs.
Flash forward to now. A Qantas spokesperson said it now expects to be back up to 68 percent of pre-Covid domestic capacity across Qantas and Jetstar in December (compared to just 20 percent earlier in the year).
The international situation is worse. Despite the re-opening of the route to New Zealand and the talk of possible "travel bubbles" to include Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, a rebound will be slow. International capacity will remain at 20 percent year-over-year levels a year from now, JP Morgan assumes. It will only recover to about half of 2019 levels in 2022.
So how is the Qantas distribution strategy faring against that backdrop?
"Despite the impact of Covid-19 on travel bookings, the Qantas Channel
