Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey has warned that that insufficient capacity is hurting Australian tourism, with Qantas Executive General Manager John Borghetti responding that Qantas would consider introducing more non stop services and he was supportive of the Government allowing more competition, provided the Australian carrier gained reciprocal access overseas.
Last week, Qantas announced it would increase non-stop services between Sydney and San Francisco from three to five a week from March 26, and operate an extra 18 services between Australia and Los Angeles during peak periods in June and July and that it is also expected to provide more services from Melbourne to Los Angeles by the middle of 2008, when it begins operating the new Airbus A380, which can carry 555 passengers.
Ms Bailey has also increased pressure on acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile to allow more competition on the Pacific route and speaking from the G’day USA tour in Los Angeles yesterday, Ms Bailey said that although she was supportive of Qantas, it would be against our national interest for the Government to reject Air Canada’s bid to enter the market, especially as it is offering Qantas reciprocal access.
Ms Bailey said the Government was spending millions of dollars promoting Australia, but tourists were struggling to get here, adding, “We are being thwarted in our efforts to grow the industry” “I’m a great supporter of Qantas … but we can’t simply argue about the national interest for Qantas”. “My argument is the tourism industry is in the national interest as well.”
Mr Borghetti denied services were insufficient, saying availability and prices increased on all routes during peak periods adding, if the Government wanted a more-open-skies policy, it had to give the Australian carrier the same rights, saying, “Australia cannot unilaterally give the Pacific route away without getting something back for Australia.”
Air Canada has said that it wants to operate from Sydney to Toronto via Los Angeles by July and Virgin Blue also wants to commence services between Australia and the US late next year, but Singapore Airlines has repeatedly failed to gain access to the route, but is maintaining political pressure, with Mr Vaile saying there was already plenty of scope for competition on the Pacific route.
Report by The Mole
