examiner,com.au Launceston
Qantas snubs North
By Chief Reporter JOHN CAPLES , Saturday, 6 March 2004
No extra morning flights
Business, political and community leaders yesterday called on Qantas and its no-frills subsidiary Jetstar to urgently re-think their plans for Launceston's air services.
A sometimes rowdy public meeting of about 100 people told airline executives they felt snubbed by Qantas because it would not operate an early morning service to Melbourne or an evening return.
Doing a day's work in Melbourne would be made even harder because the first Jetstar service would not leave Launceston until 7.30am, an hour later than the present flight.
Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce called on the meeting to look at the positives - 30 per cent more capacity into the city and average fare reductions of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent.
But he confirmed there would be no seat allocations - passengers would board in groups of 40 and pick their own seats.
He denied earlier reports that pets would be carried in overhead lockers in Jetstar's new Airbus 320s, but conceded that a lack of heating in the aircraft hold could see adoption of the practice in Europe and the US where pets travelled in cages at their owners' feet.
"But it's not a practice we intend to encourage," Mr Joyce said.
Qantas regional general manager marketing Peter Collins rejected a call for the airline to repeat in Launceston its last-minute decision to reschedule an early-morning flight and evening return Hobart- Melbourne service. He said Launceston's population meant that an early-morning Qantas Boeing 737 service was not viable.
He said the issue would be reviewed if demand warranted it.
Opposition Leader Rene Hidding drew crowd applause when he called on Mr Collins to explain how demand could be assessed if no flight existed.
Mr Hidding said Qantas had miscalculated local customer reaction of the important morning and evening flights.
Mr Collins was given a noisy response when he suggested that Launceston travellers unhappy with Qantas service might consider Qantaslink turbo-prop flights out of Devonport or Burnie which "weren't far away".
Liberal Senator Guy Barnett, who convened yesterday's meeting at Doherty Launceston International Hotel, said he believed Qantas and Jetstar executives had "got the message" that Northern Tasmanians were not prepared to be treated as a low priority in Qantas's operations.
Launceston Mayor Janie Dickenson said she was extremely concerned about the impact of Qantas scheduling on regional business.
Qantas will have only one daily flight, leaving Melbourne at 11am and retuning from Launceston at 1.10pm.
"It is unacceptable - we thought today's meeting might have resolved some of our concerns raised with the airlines earlier but it didn't," she said. "We will be seeking another meeting."
Launceston Chamber of Commerce executive officer Jo Archer said the chamber was disappointed with the outcome but had been advised by Qantas regional manager Roch van Delft that he would organise another meeting with the airline's major clients and community leaders.
From May 25 Qantas will operate a daily Melbourne-Launceston flight and Jetstar will offer four Launceston-Melbourne services and a daily Launceston-Sydney flight, which will increase to two later this year.
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