Air Australia a victim of rumors, and credibility
February 16, 2012 – 3:04 am, by Ben Sandilands
Air Australia at risk from all directions, including itself | Plane Talking
Air Australia is copping it from all directions this week, being the subject yet again of rumors of demise or administration, and the doubts it has itself planted by demanding and getting traffic rights to more places than it is plausibly going to serve without more investors and a stronger business.
The airline is owned by former Ansett flight attendant Michael James. It is a renamed Strategic Airlines, which appears in the search results as a carrier which generated occasional controversy over its providing lift to the Australian military effort in Iraq and now Afghanistan.
After a number of service malfunctions it appeared to lift its game and operates what are widely described as effective and competitive services to Phuket, Honolulu and Bali, and between Brisbane and Melbourne and Perth and Derby as well as offering charter services in a small fleet of owned or leased A330s and A320s.
It has also received traffic allocations for services to Vietnam and China but has not revealed anything useful as to when, how often, and with whose A330s, and much of its international flying today appears to be with leased a leased Turkish A330 that sometimes comes as surprise if not disappointment to passengers who expected the gleaming machines in Air Australian livery presented on its site and in its sales material.
Air Australia yesterday specifically and comprehensively denied that it had entered into administration.
Rumors to the contrary are likely to contribute to damage for the Air Australia brand. But so is the inability of the company so far to provide lucid and detailed accounts of what it is on about with its overseas ambitions, since the traffic rights that are automatically available to licensed Australian flag carriers are not in themselves going to translate into revenue unless they are offered as seats to the market, and as soon as possible.
It is fair to say that Air Australia is a welcome competitive force, but that it must decisively act to resource its ambitions, or run a very high risk of irrelevancy leading inevitably to failure.