Qantas Business and Platinum Frequent Flyers travelling on domestic flights from Perth have a new option with the opening of the Qantas Perth Domestic Business Lounge. The new domestic Business Lounge means that Perth now joins Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and Canberra airports in having such a lounge.
Qantas rightly points out that the Business Lounge is a unique product in Australia. Its main competitor, Virgin Australia, operates a single lounge product. This offers a key point of differentiation in the product.
The new lounge in Perth represents an increase of almost 50 percent lounge space, seating more than 350 people. As with other lounges, it features distinct zones offering the choice of areas to dine, work and relax.
According to Qantas, the design of the lounge draws on regional influences through architectural finishes. These are based on the unique Western Australian landscape such as terracotta and metallic feature walls representing the mineral-rich soil. The colour palette is drawn from Margaret River, Matilda Bay, Wave Rock, and Broome.
Facilities
The lounge contains a number of new features, both for Perth airport and for the Qantas Business lounges.
The Perth lounge offers two brand Business Lounge dining concepts. The first is an Italian pizza bar with a pizza chef. The second is a wine bar “where customers can sit and enjoy barista coffee and freshly made croissants in the morning and a glass of wine and canapés in the evening.”
As with other lounges in the network, menus are designed by Neil Perry. There is a ‘make your own’ juice station in the morning, cocktail hour from 4 – 5 pm on weekdays with cocktails designed by the Rockpool Mixology team and a generous fresh hot and cold buffet.
Customers can also enjoy a ‘plate of the day’ from the central island dining tables on weekdays. This includes dishes such as baked eggs with chorizo and feta in the morning and gourmet cheese plates in the evening.
The opening of the Business Lounge in Perth takes the competition between Virgin Australia and Qantas up another notch. Overall, the new Business Lounge offers Qantas travellers an experience that meets the level of the other capital city lounges. Hopefully, the increased combined seating capacity will alleviate some of the overcrowding issues that afflicted the Perth Qantas Club lounge on occasion.
