And the first services that will start post pandemic will be XXX - SYD.
This is some of what is at stake and why QF is not a national carrier. It is a Sydney carrier. It is critical to Australia’s recovery from the pandemic that QF not be allowed to funnel International pax via Sydney.
There is any amount of literature on the impact of direct international flights on local economic growth. This is a real issue. Arguably, pre covid, Melbourne and Brisbane had finally got enough direct flights from foreign carriers to avoid the Sydney squeeze. However post covid, the Government needs to ensure that this bias towards Sydney by QF is not resurgent.
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Not long ago, it was thought thatplanes would flatten the world, spreading us out even more than the rise of railroads and cars did in previous eras. But the reality has been much the reverse. Airplanes, airports, and air travel have contributed to our geographic spikiness, fueling the growing concentration of population and economic activity in a small number of large, productive, and well-connected superstar cities.
That’s one of the key findings of a
recent study on the effects of global airports and air connectivity on economic and urban development. The study, by economists at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the University of Zurich, examines air travel’s role in the economic performance of more than 819 cities and metro areas in 200 different countries. Using detailed data from the International Civil Aviation Organization, it looks specifically at how direct flights facilitate business links and investments between pairs of cities, with data on over half a million businesses and more than 30,000 major business events around the world.
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/...rtunes/544478/
https://www.skyharbor.com/docs/defau...rsn=6a7a9a88_4
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[QUOTE]
Air connectivity is an effective engine for increasing both competitiveness and economic growth. That is particularly crucial in Europe, which relies on aviation to provide the international transport links that make Europe a global hub of social and economic connectivity, and to compete on the world stage. [/QUOTE]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...46043018300030
http://www.dlgrma.qld.gov.au/resourc...d-aviation.pdf