ACB,
if you have grown up in Perth you would know that the entry of DJ into the Perth market has led to lower airfares than ever, indeed right around the country. The only reason QF offers prices that are as cheap as DJ's over the internet is that they have to, they have been forced to lower their fares and that was as a direct result of impulse and dj's entry to the market in 2000.
My sister recently purchased a dj ticket to syd from perth for $198 return, this was in a 24 hour sale over the internet admittedly, but if this isn't low fare then what is????
go back to post ansett but pre virgin, when only qf was serving perth for a few short months, remember all the whinging that perth was under a "qf monopoly" and badly needed some competition, it arrived in the form of virgin, and with it came lower fares offered by both airlines.
qf may match and even offer cheaper fares in some instances than virgin, but it had to start doing this to combat what will be a force in australian aviation for some time to come.
as for australian, they never intended to be a low fare airline, that is correct you wait, when virgin kick-off internationally you can bet your bottom dollar that AO''s fares will be reduced to match that of virgin's and new routes introduced to take over existing qf intl services...