Ansett revival possible September 04, 2002
SINGAPORE Airlines may be on the verge of an assault on Australia's domestic aviation market – possibly by relaunching the Ansett brand.
Two weeks before the anniversary of Ansett's collapse, the Nine Network last night reported that a proposal to revive the name would be put to Singapore's board on September 11.
Singapore Airlines has refused to confirm or deny the report, but said last night it was keeping options open.The airline stressed that Australia remained an important market."Our position remains the same," Singapore Airlines told the AFX-Asia wire service. "We are keeping our options open in the Australian market."
Speculation has been building for several months about a third carrier moving into the domestic market. Singapore Airlines consultants in Australia began secretly assembling a proposal for a full service domestic competitor to Qantas about six months ago, with the proposal completed about a week ago, according to the Nine report. The report said Singapore's Australian fleet would comprise 24 Airbus aircraft.
Sydney Airports Corporation Ltd spokesman Peter Gibbs confirmed that an evaluation team had come out to look at the former Ansett terminal."We believe their assessment was very serious and very measured," he told AAP.
"We have had ongoing discussions with them, but what they propose to do as far as setting up an airline is entirely up to the Singapore Airlines' board."Administrators have retained Ansett's heavy maintenance facility, several aircraft and a chief pilot with an air operators' certificate...................
But an industry analyst, who asked not to be named, said a third airline did not make commercial sense.
"There is a general sense out there that it is complete commercial madness for them to give it a go, but that has never stopped people in the past," he said.
The Australian
==========================================
More crap journalism there.........
industry analyst, who asked not to be named, said a third airline did not make commercial sense. .
Who is that analyst? Geoff Dixon. Brett Godfrey?
Did the 'analyst receive payment from QF for his 'opinion'.
Who says there's a general sense out there of commercial madness? I personally think there is a yawning gap for a business-class carrier to offset the QF monopoly of that market. So clearly do many others....generally.
Grrrrrrrr
