Reports today suggest that the Federal Government is considering granting Singapore Airlines limited access to the all important Pacific route when it completes its Open Skies aviation policy review by March, although rumours abound that it could be announced this month.
Peter Harbison, managing director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, believes Singapore Airlines has put forward a strong enough case to be given a chance to compete with Qantas.
“I would suspect the betting is on giving token, very limited access to Singapore Airlines, which would allow the government to say that it has maintained a fairly liberal stance whilst making everyone more or less equally unhappy,” Mr Harbison said.
Singapore Airlines says the federal government hasn’t signalled its intentions.
“As far as we are aware at this stage it is still due to go to cabinet,” said Singapore Airlines spokeswoman Kate Pratley.
“We stand by our position that the trans-Pacific route is under serviced and that if there were to be more carriers coming on board – i.e. Singapore Airlines – that consumers will be the winners,” she said.
“We are pro-competition, it breeds more choices and more flexibility for consumers.”
Singapore Airlines posted a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profits on Thursday, as the sting of high fuel costs led to its fourth straight quarter of declining earnings.
The state-controlled airline, facing soaring fuel costs that outweighed rising demand for flights, said it earned net profit of SGD$397 million (USD$243 million) in its fiscal third quarter, down 15 percent from a year ago.
