Sydney, not Melbourne, where tourists want to go: Qantas’s Joyce

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce loves Melbourne, but it will always be in second place to Sydney when it comes to his airline.

Addressing the National Press Club, Mr Joyce flagged big changes to the airline’s international operations. But the plans will not end Melbourne’s second-class status in the Qantas line-up.

In a preview of changes to be revealed in August, Mr Joyce indicated that Qantas planned to start flying routes within Asia, as well as to Asia, in a joint venture that observers believe could be based in Singapore.

Mr Joyce said Qantas had lost about $200 million on its international operations in 2010-11, and had to restructure. He said it would focus more on alliances with other airlines and ”cast a ruthless eye over” non-performing routes.

While declaring his own love of Melbourne, the Qantas chief held out no prospect of operating more foreign services out of Australia’s second biggest city.

Qantas and its offshoots operate only 12 overseas flights a day from Melbourne, against 35 from Sydney.

Mr Joyce said Qantas had tried to improve services from Melbourne, but said: ”It doesn’t have the premium traffic that Sydney has … It doesn’t have the international traffic that Sydney has, because Sydney is where the international tourists want to go.”

Recent figures, however, show foreign tourists increasingly are going to Melbourne – on airlines other than Qantas.

In the past 10 years the number of foreign tourists spending most of their time in Victoria jumped by 458,000, while the number based in Sydney dropped by 62,000.