Qantas rejects Airports’ accusation of being the favoured airline

Australian airports are saying that a harder government line on allowing overseas carriers to fly to Australia is hindering growth and working against the nation’s multi-million-dollar push to promote tourism, that much of their international traffic growth in recent years has come from overseas carriers and as a result, they are joining forces to convince the federal Government to further liberalise Australian skies.

The airports are particularly concerned about recent government decisions rejecting Singapore Airlines’ request to start services to the US and the failure of requests for more flights from Qatar Airways, Vietnam Airlines and a Taiwanese carrier.

Melbourne Airport Chief Executive Chris Barlow has warned that the city’s international capacity growth was endangered by a policy that was asking too much in return for increased access.

Qantas Executive General Manager John Borghetti dismissed the accusations as ill-considered, commenting, “Here is someone who’s operating nothing short of a monopoly, telling us that the fact there’s something like 57 international carriers flying into this country in one way or another means we need to open up to more competition”.  

Mr Borghetti added, “I’d just like to know where he learnt his economics, because it’s just quite a bizarre statement”.  He added, “The fact is there is such a thing as supply and demand and there is no point putting too much supply into a market for the simple reason that some players will wind up pulling off.”

The Federal Government spent nine months reviewing its aviation policy before deciding to maintain a position that increased access to Australia needed to be balanced by increased rights for Australian travellers and there is a feeling in some levels of government that a wave of liberalisation preceding the review may have unnecessarily weakened Australia’s bargaining position.

A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Warren Truss said the Government was unlikely to review its policy again soon, saying, “The Government’s aim was to get ‘as level a playing field as possible’ with an equitable balance”.

“So, if we’re negotiating, of course there’s got to be something that they want and that we want”.  “We’re not going to just give stuff away without getting anything in return”.  “I’m aware that airports always want more business but we’re looking out for the interests of the Australian aviation industry as well”.

Singapore Airlines yesterday welcomed the push for more open skies and said the airports had rightly stressed that Australia was being left behind in the global race to attract international tourists.

Report by The Mole