Qantas jettisons Skywest

[IFF]

Skywest had been dumped from Qantas Frequent Flyer program.
I guess they don't like the competition.

[compressor stall]

Hardly competition when you get 1000 points (their min guarantee) on QF for KG-PH and 298 for Skywest Kg-PH (the actual miles).

[Wirraway]

Wed "Kalgoorlie Miner"

Qantas decision on Skywest to hit Goldfields
Date May 26th, 2004

GOLDFIELDS residents are the losers following Qantas' decision to drop Skywest from its popular frequent flyer program, according to Kalgoorlie MLA Matt Birney.

Barely a year after announcing the partnership with WA's main regional airline, Qantas has backed out of the deal because Skywest was creeping in on its market share.

Skywest general manager Scott Henderson said the growth of the regional airline contributed to Qantas' decision but he said most Skywest customers were not interested in frequent flyer points. "A lot of people are more interested in having discounted airfare than having frequent flyer points," he said.

A Qantas spokesman said Skywest's network overlapped with Qantas.

Mr Birney said Qantas was selfish and it was Kalgoorlie-Boulder residents who would suffer from the decision to drop Skywest from the program.

"Qantas needs a rocket put under them, quite frankly," Mr Birney said. He said since the collapse of Ansett three years ago airfares to Kalgoorlie-Boulder have increased as has the number of points required to get a frequent flyer award flight to the region.

"The price of a standard airfare between Perth and Kalgoorlie is bordering on extortion," Mr Birney said.

Mr Birney said he would continue talks with another airline, which he would not name, about launching a Perth-Kalgoorlie-Melbourne service.

"I'll continue to actively try and attract another airline to the region," he said.

Skywest has recently announced its mid-year profit of $1.8 million was 6 per cent ahead of the forecast.

The airline is reportedly the subject of take-over interest from its biggest stockholder, Captive Vision Capital which hopes to use WA's biggest regional airline as a promotion vehicle for its Kuala Lumpur-based carrier, Air Asia.

===========================================

[Airspeed Ambassador]

Mr Birney said he would continue talks with another airline, which he would not name, about launching a Perth-Kalgoorlie-Melbourne service.

"I'll continue to actively try and attract another airline to the region," he said.

Gee, I wonder which airline Mr Birney is talking about?:cool:

[cunninglinguist]

I could never understand QF pulling Q/Link out of KG-AD service, it certainly was'nt due to load factors.
One story i heard was that it was taking revenue off mainline, the other was that on a KG-AD-ML ticket for say, $500, mainline got the lions share of this and made the route look unprofitable, if you can get sense out of that lot, please explain it to me.

However, in regards to QF pulling out of the FF partnership with Skywest.............................umm, derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I can't believe they have let it go this long ! Skywest have made it pretty clear that they wan't to operate on the main QF/QF link routes, so who in their right mind is going to give opposition pax points to fly free on their airline, please.:confused:

If you are so concerned Birney, everytime someone flies to KG with Skywest, give them a bunch of cash, thats basically what you expect QF to do.

[cunninglinguist]

Yeh, as I said on the other thread about this, real surprising !!

Big nasty old Qantas don't want to give people who fly with the opposition free flights, a real no brainer if ever there was one.

[apacau]

Yes, I would have though KGI-ADL was more sensible than a MEL service. Is it within F100 range at full load in 45 degree temperatures?!

[boeing7E7]

i hardly think so. the F100 cant make it to broome without pax offloading on a hot day. i also cant beleve the QF FF program has lasted this long on skywest it is like haking skywest pax a wad of cash. if it means this much to the kalgoolie pax then why fly skywest at all????

[apacau]

i also cant beleve the QF FF program has lasted this long on skywest it is like haking skywest pax a wad of cash.

Um, being part of the QFFF program is actually handing Qantas a wad of cash. You would not believe the expense some regional airlines have to go to to get themselves in the program and to give their pax QFClub lounge access. Can't speak for all airlines, but i know for sure it's the case with some regionals around oz.

[Pom Pax]

I've been waiting about 10 days to see how long before someone picked this up.
When I first read it in the "West" the impression was that Skywest were withdrawing from the program not being dumped. Also there is a longish lead time October and a further 12 months for redemption.
Now I have just read that Skywest are offering seamless travel with Emirates, so perhaps another FF deal is just round the corner.