Qantas strikes first in Virgin fight

AUSTRALIAN carrier Qantas has fired the first shot in a threatened price war with Sir Richard Branson.

Branson's Virgin Atlantic recently won permission to fly on the profitable 'kangaroo route' from London to Sydney via Hong Kong, competing with Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.

Qantas, in which BA holds 17%, today unveiled beefed-up services from Brisbane and Melbourne, and a new direct service between Perth and Hong Kong, starting on 29 March.

Qantas is offering an introductory fare of A$1028 (£439) on the Perth-Hong Kong route, more than A$1,100 below the current travel cost and more than halving the travelling time.

Its passengers currently have to travel to Hong Kong from Perth via Adelaide and Melbourne, a trip that on average takes more than 17 hours.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in