Competition Heats Up As Carriers Contest Kangaroo Routes

A new influx of capacity is heating up competition on the crowded—and lucrative—routes between Australia and Europe. But it is not the home-market carriers on either end that are gaining. Instead, this is increasingly becoming a key battleground for the Middle Eastern and Asian airline giants. This has always been one of the highest-profile long-distance markets, thanks largely to the so-called Kangaroo route from the U.K. to Australia. In a dynamic that is being echoed all over the globe, legacy airlines based at the extremities of this corridor are struggling to compete against carriers with growing hubs in the Persian Gulf region, Southeast Asia and China ...