foreign airlines on Domestic routes
 

Recently noticed that a few intl carriers conduct flights between aus cities such as cathay between brissy and cairns or air India from Sydney to melbourne. However you are unable to book a ticket. So I'm wondering if these flights are empty or are they only available to intl travellers?

Use AI for example

Rather than running two airframes, one to sydney and one to melbourne they do a milk run and drop off pax / pick up those. Only on the international sector hence not being able to buy a domestic ticket

Is that Toyota Airlines, Holden Airlines or Mitsubishi Airlines?
What does that writing on the wall say?

Bbbbbbzs

You may be able to travel on the domestic sector if you arrive with that airline from overseas and stop over at the first point of arrival. i.e. Come from HKG have a few days in CNS and go on to SYD.

I'm not sure of the current regs. but in the past you got an orange sticker for your luggage and boarding pass. You didn't need to clear immigration but you had to go through Customs as you had mixed with arriving passengers.

Whilst not foreign airlines, I have travelled on domestic positioning services of international flights before (QF SY - BN & JQ SY - CS). The tickets were cheap, but the flights were boarded and disembarked at the relevant international terminals which took more time.

These flights are sold as normal domestic services which is what they basically are. What an Australian airline does with an aircraft after it's flown between two domestic cities doesn't matter. There is usually an note saying that the flight departs or arrives from the international terminal and that's about it. Sometimes you get lucky and have a wide body instead of a sardine can.

Any airline in the world can operate SYD-MEL domestically everything else is locked up and is for foreign onward travel.

Some confusing replies here, apart from #5 and 2.

Traffic rights dictate that a 'foreign' airline may be able to operate for example HKG-MEL-SYD. It will be able to carry passengers HKG-SYD and HKG-MEL but not MEL-SYD, unless that segment forms part of an online connecting or stopover journey, in which the passenger will have been ticketed appropriately. The same applies on reverse on the outbound journey.

What they will not be able to do is sell tickets, in AU, to local pax, purely for the domestic leg.

There is an exception in the EU whereby the entire EU is considered for this purpose as one country, so for example an Irish airline can operate between MAD and ROM or even between ROM and MIL.

There has also been an exception in Australia but it was a unique circumstance during the '89 pilot's dispute. Foreign airlines were flying domestic pax on domestic routes.

And don't forget that QF operates Los Angeles-New York (and used to operate LA to Chicago as well), so this is not something unique to Australia.

Let's not forget also JETSTAR operating domestically in nz on VH rego aircraft.

New Zealand airlines can fly domestically in Australia under NZ CAA rules which are apparently much easier to navigate than CASA rules.


One of the catches is, must have main operation in NZL.


Vincent NZ used to operate a BAe146 in OZ with NZL rego & by NZ CAA rules.


It was available for domestic charter. It could have done RPT but don't think it ever did.


Air NZ could operate domestically in OZ. Airwork used to operate a pax B734 in OZ & think they have some freighters here with NZ rego.


Apparently it's an easy way to operate RPT flights in OZ, ie. do it on a NZL AOC.

Folks,

Re. Au and NZ, acquaint yourselves with the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Treaty ---- CASA simply hates it, it is that good!!

In years gone by, several OS carriers did have domestic rights, the examples I remember are Air India between Perth and Sydney, and BOAC/BA between both Perth and Darwin and Sydney.

Not all that long ago, there were several such cases dormant, they haven't, to my knowledge, been used for years --- if any still exist.

Tootle pip!!

if only there were more NZL airlines, who could fly aircraft is Australia, without all the CASA hassles.

BNEA320,
Any of them can, if they want to. CASA has very little say in the matter.
Tootle pip!!