It doesn't change the fact that Sunfish and Warren Truss both share a startling ignorance of the reality that confronts QANTAS in relation to its services to and from Melbourne, and indeed all of Australia's "smaller" capitals.
The article in question makes reference to the multitude of Malaysian, Singapore, Cathay etc. tails at the international terminal in Melbourne in comparison to QANTAS.
Assuming the majority of passengers on these airlines' aircraft are on their way to Europe, the simple reality is that these airlines take one planeload of people from Melbourne to their hub and then split them amongst several aircraft with passengers from other services and countries to continue onto their destinations in Europe.
For example, SQ would have passengers from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Singapore and any other city that is linked to Singapore by SQ on its services to Europe.
QANTAS doesn't have this luxury. The passengers it collects in Melbourne or Sydney for a flight to Europe are the ones it has to carry all the way through. It doesn't have a hub in Asia to collect passengers inbound from several other countries. The only passengers on its aircraft will be ex. Australia.
The volume of traffic from Melbourne simply doesn't justify several daily or even weekly direct services to various European cities. If it did, QANTAS would have been doing it years ago and would still be doing so.
QANTAS is like any other public company. It's got to provide a sufficient return to the market to remain viable. WIth the QANTAS Sale Act limiting foreign ownership to 49% the Government has forced QANTAS to remain an "Australian" carrier; allowing the Government to retain the prestige of a flag carrier without having to contribute anything.
QANTAS will only operate on routes that justify the investment of considerable assets. Several daily services from Melbourne direct to European cities are simply not justified.
Sunfish, GET OVER IT.
Warren Truss should and will be made aware of the nature of commercial reality by Geoff Dixon et al.
Last edited by DirectAnywhere; 23rd Jul 2005 at 12:46.