Qantas is promising a “private jet feel” in a new ultra-premium airline it’s hoping to launch in Asia. The Sydney Morning Herald says the airline is narrowing down names for the new carrier, which will likely be based in Malaysia or Singapore and cater to high-end business clients. The newspaper says the new carrier will compete with the decadent offerings of Singapore Airlines A380 first class in an attempt to gain a bigger share of the burgeoning Southeast Asia and Chinese business travel market. It will not, however, be assigning its own A380s to the task. Rather, a fleet of 24 refurbished A320s will be used.
Matching the luxury of Singapore’s super-jumbo first-class staterooms and compartmentalized seats will be a tall order (particularly in a single-aisle airliner) but Qantas says it will actually do better than that with a “top premium product.” The top contender for the new name of the airline is RedQ but apparently OneAsia is also in the running.
