Icarus 2001 and Uncle Festa,
The
highly respected people are led by Nick Belyea (A/Director Transport Policy) who is indeed very respected by the aviation professionals that work with him. One group of opinion [including mine] is that Nick is the running the best show that WA has seen since the 1980s when JT was running it.
The reports are by Tourism Futures International and the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Again, for what its worth, my own opinion is that if I could write a report as good as theirs every time, I would be well pleased with myself. As it is, I think they've done this one very well.
The reports are on the DPI website
http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/aviation/index.html
Scan down that webpage and find the links to the reports. The page includes:
"New Air Services Policy for Western Australia"
Following the collapse of Ansett in September 2001, the Government of Western Australia moved to review all intrastate air services to ensure that regional centres and communities in Western Australia would continue to have sustainable and viable air services.
The Department for Planning and Infrastructure commissioned aviation industry consultants, to undertake an independent analysis of intrastate air services in Western Australia.
Central to the report's recommendations is that the Government adopt a more active regulatory regime to support scheduled air services on non-jet routes.
The results of the review are available as a comprehensive Technical Report (PDF 2322KB) and an Overview Report (PDF 386KB)
IMHO, download and read the Technical Report closely. If you want to get a good understanding of the business of regional airline policy and economics, then this report is first class.
In this bizarre 'Dicked by Smith' world of Australian aviation, let me make the necessary statement for the record that I have no vested interest in the reports - I don't know either of Tourism Futures International or the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, and I have no business or interest in Skywest or in anything to do with the long thin routes that are being discussed, and I have no business or profit from the monopoly and I don't work for the WA government.
As a general comment, and not aimed at any person here, don't come into my postgraduate classroom on airline economics and expect to pass the course without demonstrating application of knowledge, computation and rigour. If you wanted to tackle the issues of the Skywest monopoly or the regional airline policies of the WA government from a professional perspective, you could then start by doing the computation of the fare structure and yield management for these thin routes (such as Albany or Esperance). Post them here in PPRUNE. That would give the facts and numbers to show if current Skywest fare/price class structure is reasonable or overpriced.
For those of you that can't wait for the answer, and since I have run the numbers, let me share them with you - their fares are, IMHO, reasonable or better then reasonable. Now Icarus2001, pass the shiraz.