Wirraway
27th Aug 2004, 06:34
AAP
Qantas says there's too many airlines
August 27, 2004
Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson said there should not be 210 different airlines operating around the world and the global airline industry needed a complete restructure.
Speaking at an Australian Institute of Company Directors luncheon in Sydney Ms Jackson said there was somewhere between 200 and 210 different airlines around the world, each with their own operating system.
She said while historically the regulatory environment protected foreign-based carriers, as the world had been opened up it was becoming more evident that there should not be so many airlines in operation.
"In almost every industry you look at there tends to be less than 10 main players," she said.
"So the airline industry I think over the next 20 years will need to have a complete restructure."
Ms Jackson warned it would be a "painful" process along the way, but said it was hard to see that happen without countries allowing restructuring to occur.
Earlier this year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) rejected a proposed alliance between Qantas and Air New Zealand but recently recommended that Qantas should be permitted to maintain a nearly decade-old alliance with British Airways for another five years.
"We have been very disappointed that we have been unable to form an alliance with Air New Zealand," Ms Jackson said.
"We have got a population of around 20 million and there are about four million in New Zealand and we are not allowed to form an alliance, where as (Dutch airline) KLM and Air France were, and they have got 500 million (in their) market.
"So when you get that sort of inequity it does make it very difficult."
© 2004 AAP
===========================================
Qantas says there's too many airlines
August 27, 2004
Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson said there should not be 210 different airlines operating around the world and the global airline industry needed a complete restructure.
Speaking at an Australian Institute of Company Directors luncheon in Sydney Ms Jackson said there was somewhere between 200 and 210 different airlines around the world, each with their own operating system.
She said while historically the regulatory environment protected foreign-based carriers, as the world had been opened up it was becoming more evident that there should not be so many airlines in operation.
"In almost every industry you look at there tends to be less than 10 main players," she said.
"So the airline industry I think over the next 20 years will need to have a complete restructure."
Ms Jackson warned it would be a "painful" process along the way, but said it was hard to see that happen without countries allowing restructuring to occur.
Earlier this year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) rejected a proposed alliance between Qantas and Air New Zealand but recently recommended that Qantas should be permitted to maintain a nearly decade-old alliance with British Airways for another five years.
"We have been very disappointed that we have been unable to form an alliance with Air New Zealand," Ms Jackson said.
"We have got a population of around 20 million and there are about four million in New Zealand and we are not allowed to form an alliance, where as (Dutch airline) KLM and Air France were, and they have got 500 million (in their) market.
"So when you get that sort of inequity it does make it very difficult."
© 2004 AAP
===========================================