Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"
Qantas bashes Yeo's ear
January 27, 2005
Geoff Dixon ... defending us from northern invaders.
Christine Lacy listens as the flying Kanga defends its territory from interlopers.
Preoccupied with the task of keeping Singapore Airlines off Qantas's money-spinning Los Angeles route, airline boss Geoff Dixon gave Singapore's Transport Minister, Yeo Cheow Tong, a taste of Aussie hospitality this week.
Before heading up to collect the gong as Asia Pacific Airline of the Year at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation Awards in Singapore, Dicko looked to be having something of an intense chat with the pollie.
And with Yeo set to discuss a possible "Open Skies" agreement with the Federal Government next month, Dicko didn't mind revealing the substance of their dialogue as he rose to accept his latest award.
"I just asked him not to go to Australia. Qantas needs to win this award next year and I know he was sitting next to CS [Singapore Air chief Chew Choon Seng] and I know what CS was talking about.
"We'll keep trying to keep the minister out of our turf."
Dicko, however, did have some kind words for AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes, whom he congratulated on winning the low-cost airline and airline executive of the year awards.
No surprise there, given Tony earlier in the day had been "250 per cent" behind Dicko when he lay the boot into Singapore Airlines over his frustrations flying into the island state.
"He's a great guy but I must tell him in Australia there's a saying that every dog has its day."
Perhaps Dicko was referring to Virgin Blue, which won last year's airline of the year award. It's unclear whether repeated profit warnings disqualify airlines from winning such awards. Virgin didn't even bother to attend.
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Thu "The Australian"
SIA claims credit for open skies
Steve Creedy
January 27, 2005
IN the most audacious claim yet in the
PR battle to open up air services between the US and Australia, Singapore Airlines has taken credit for decisions by existing carriers such as Qantas to improve services on the Pacific.
The claim came during a speech to a Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation conference in Singapore at which Singapore Airlines chief executive Chew Choon Seng was extolling the virtues of liberalisation and free market competition.
"I would submit that, at the very least, our indication of interest has at least sparked the incumbent carriers to put on more capacity to try and do better at making the route more competitive, more accessible," Mr Chew said.
The Singaporeans are lobbying the Australian Government for permission to fly passengers between Australia and the US, arguing it will make it easier to get seats, give people a greater choice in pricing and raise Australia's tourist profile. Qantas is attempting to derail the Singaporean bid, arguing permission to fly the route would put it at an unfair advantage.
However, the Australian carrier has already moved to boost capacity on route and last week announced that it would fly its first four A380 superjumbos to the US.
Mr Chew described the Pacific route from Australia as "demonstrably underserved" and said the airline was aware corporate customers in Australia found it hard to get seats and paid higher fares at certain times of the year.
He said the tourism potential from the Americas to Australia was also not being realised because of a relative shortage of capacity.
"So I would submit that the opening up of the sector would see more accessibility, more options of price, service, alternatives for travellers to choose from," he said.
Lobbying for the new route is intensifying ahead of a meeting next month between Transport Minister John Anderson and his Singaporean counterpart, Yeo Cheow Tong. The Singaporean push is likely to complicate any moves by Virgin Blue or entrepreneur Richard Branson to start up their own US services.
But Mr Chew said Singapore was not party to any moves by Virgin Blue to spread its wings across the Pacific.
"All I can observe is that under the entitlements to the Virgin trademark for airline usage, Virgin Blue's application is limited to continental Australia," he said.
The Singapore boss predicted that only a handful of the low-fare start-ups proliferating in the region would survive.
He said legacy airlines such as Singapore, Thai International and Cathay Pacific had all watched and learned from what happened with low-cost carriers in North America and Europe.
He also believed some of the local start-ups were not truly low cost.
"And definitely we are not taking the challenges lying down," he said.
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