Kangaroo bounces back

It's lurid orange and offers cheap fares. Welcome to Australia's 'easyQantas'.

British visitors to Australia could soon find themselves travelling on a new airline that has already been dubbed "easyQantas" – a new, low-cost offshoot of Australia's national carrier, which comes complete with lurid orange livery.

On 27 October, Australian Airlines takes to the skies once again. The carrier of that name used to fly domestic routes in Australia in competition with now-defunct Ansett, until it was taken over by Qantas. Now the parent company is to resurrect the old name for a new operation based in the far north Queensland city of Cairns.

The first routes are to the Japanese cities of Nagoya and Osaka – or, rather,from Japan, since the vast majority of passengers are expected to be incoming tourists. Flights from Fukuoka in Japan, the Taiwanese capital Taipei and Hong Kong will soon follow. Most significantly for the British traveller, those destinations will be joined by Singapore, replacing the old Qantas link. This route is popular with UK backpackers connecting from south-east Asia to Australia's diving and rainforest capital – which, for Qantas, has proved a problem. Few premium passengers have been paying the fares necessary to sustain the airline's operations. "Qantas has been unable to extract a satisfactory return," says Geoff Dixon, the airline's chief executive.

The airline believes its high-quality business and first-class products are wasted on routes to Cairns. According to Peter Grimes of STA Travel in London, the airline considered abandoning the route altogether: "Over the last two years, airlines such as Malaysia, Singapore and Garuda have pulled out of Cairns. Qantas could have done the same, but has taken this approach instead."

Australian Airlines will be an all-economy carrier, like the no-frills airline Virgin Blue, though flying larger aircraft – Boeing 767s instead of 737s – and with entertainment and meals. "Australian Airlines is essentially an economy-class version of Qantas," says Arran Sutherland, the air product manager at Quest Travel. "You may not get seat-back TVs, which Qantas is installing throughout the mainline fleet in every class, but you'll still get fed and watered."

Strangely, the price of a typical London-Cairns return flight on a combination of British Airways and Australian Airlines will rise when the new service begins; through Quest Travel, the fare will rise to £875, £76 more than on the previous British Airways/Qantas combination. But the journey will be quicker, according to Mr Sutherland: "Previously, with Qantas/BA, the fastest route from London to Cairns involved a change in Singapore and a touchdown in Brisbane.

"Once Australian Airlines starts operating, Britons who set out seeking the Queensland sun will have just one change in Singapore then a non-stop flight to Cairns."

Australian Airlines plans to expand to a second Australian city, widely expected to be Adelaide – which has rather fallen off the map recently in terms of international air links. Another possibility is Perth: the Western Australian capital is the most isolated big city in the world, and dependent on aviation for inbound and outbound tourism. Direct links to Hong Kong, Phuket in Thailand and the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, are all under consideration.

www.australianairlines.com.au