Originally Posted by
neville_nobody
The market will sort it out. I don’t understand why the regions are always Koala Bears when it comes to aviation. City folk pay the ‘market’ price for everything including airfares. Yet the regions who have affordable housing, subsidised infrastructure with no toll roads, subsidised medicine also want government funded airfares as well?
It also creates moral hazard and a host of other issues along with pork barreling come election time. This whole REX saga is a classic example of why the government needs to stay out of business. They should go broke and let it start again with whomever wants to fly to these towns.
The issue with the whole subsidy concept is for how long and how much do you subsidise something that is unaffordable? Why don’t we subsidise the Sydney housing market because that is unaffordable too? If people want to live in the regions that’s fine, it’s cheap, great quality of life etc etc but due to low volume airfares will be relatively expensive. That’s just reality.
There are some places where it simply needs subsidising - QLD remote routes for example. Birdsville route? You can’t cut them off or they’d become Marshall law. When you go on your holiday to remote QLD you want a civilised society.
I don’t think as many of Rex ‘routes’ are subsidised as might be suggested on this forum.
having said that - I do agree that the market can sort out the pieces after Rex collapse - another operator can pick up the subsidy.