Pete Conrad - before you go letting everyone else know how wrong they are, perhaps you might like to test your verbal comprehension with these select passages regarding Emirates increasing its flights to Australia:
The Australian government said on Thursday it had given Emirates airline [EMAIR.UL] approval to boost its flight numbers between Dubai and Australia by almost 50 percent -- but not from the country's main gateway, Sydney.
...a memorandum of understanding (MOU) had been signed with Dubai-based Emirates, increasing the number of its flights to Dubai from Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane to 44 a week from 30.
Dubai-based Emirates would also be able to operate beyond Australia to any two points in New Zealand for the first time, boosting competition on the trans-Tasman market as regulators assess a proposed alliance between Qantas and Air New Zealand .
I don't believe I ever stated that Emirates would be coming in greater numbers to Sydney - just that they were planning on increasing numbers
to Australia. As for Emirates flying the Tasman - that sounds as if it has already been signed off.
John Anderson the 'Minister for Qantas' - what a load of BS. If he was in the pocket of QF management to the extent that has been suggested on here, why would Australia be negotiating open sky agreements with any other nation? Surely he'd be protecting QF above the benefit of joe average to have fractionally cheaper airline seats?
I'd love to hear some sort of proposed timeline for SQ's introduction of domestic services. As for there being a huge amount of new jobs available as a result of a wholly overseas owned carrier coming into an already well catered to market - I fail to see it happening. I'd suggest that Virgin are already providing 'real competition' in most segments, and are certainly providing 'real opportunities' for guys to get some jet time/get back home to Oz. As a guess, I'd hardly suggest that the average Australian would be overjoyed at the thought of a Singapore - DJ tie up - I might even go so far as to suggest that they couldn't give a stuff, as long as they can get where they're going...
Just to clarify - I
DO see any possible introduction of an overseas carrier here as a threat to Qantas - and the 30,000 odd Australians it employs directly, plus the many thousands more who would be indirectly affected. How these people & the Australian economy would benefit from SQ's arrival is hard for me to understand - I'd be delighted to see your workings though... We've only just been through the Ansett disaster - are you suggesting that we deserve another one like it to see QF 'get what's been coming to it' - is that where your motivation truly lies...?
Just my thoughts...