Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Ken, QANTAS claims to be "Australia's national airline". It isn't. it's NSW airline. Ever since at least as early as 1972, Qantas has favoured Sydney as its preferred destination for inbound overseas arrivals. This has had a catastrophic effect on inbound overseas investment for Brisbane and Melbourne, let alone poor Adelaide.
Sydney got the lions share of foreign banking and IT overseas investment during the 1970's and 1980's as a result of Qantas being a willing tool of the Sydney "push". There were #@#! all direct flights from BNE and MEL to LHR and LAX. Everything had to transit through Sydney either inbound or outbound. The result was that Melbourne and Brisbane were perceived by potential overseas investors as being at least three hours further from London and New York than Sydney.
The direct result of this bias was skewed overseas investment in Sydney's favour. When I proposed breaking Sydneys stranglehold on the B747 TFC and line maintenance monopoly circa 1979, which we (Ansett) could have done with minimal further investment (as we were tooling up for the B767), I was instructed at a meeting with John Bibo, very firmly, to drop the subject as "abeles will have our guts for garters if we break that Qantas monopoly". Such is the role of direct flights in securing inbound international investment.
Nothing has changed my view that Qantas is a willing tool of the NSW government, no matter what political persuasion. It will do nothing that politically disadvantages its host. You can bet that if the non stop service eventuates it will again be marketed as Sydney is three hours closer to london and new york, blah, blah.
Qantas ain't a national airline. it's just a bunch of sydney crooks doing what they've been doing since the rum rebellion.
Oh stop talking absolute rubbish... Qantas operated daily via SIN to europe all through the 80s and into the 90s... the only 'one stop' service to Europe in the late 70s/early 80s went SYD/MEL/PER/BOM/LHR... the premier 'one stop' service from the East Coast was QF9/10 using 747-338s and it went SYD/MEL/BOM/LHR... to top that off, as well as QF6 operating daily from FRA into SIN then on to MEL, THEN SYD, QF2 also operated direct into MEL a couple of days a week.
In the days of direct West Coast USA, no aircraft had the range to do the extra bit from MEL to LAX instead of SYD-LAX but QF17 operated if not daily, then 4-5 times a week ex MEL to NAN and HNL... QF25 to HNL and YVR... from BNE, as well as QF51 direct to SIN to join up with QF1.
You need to do some research before you say these things. Qantas' first ever round-the-world service for about the first 10 years originated and terminated at MEB. It was only the lack of MEB to handle the B707 that stopped it from originating MEL. Yes, a number of flights also operated ex MEL via SYD because most of them could not manage a full load on a 747 so one aircraft went on beyond SYD and some pax joined other flights.
MEL always had direct HKG flights, direct SIN flights and flights direct to ports in Indonesia.
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