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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0063.PDF
Regulation which will not die Australia is a big island with a sparse population. It is culturally an island too, a Western civilisation set in the East. Its geography makes its civil air transport problems unique. Stanley Brogden looks at how this Common wealth of States handles its airline industry The 15 million people who inhabit the island continent of Australia may not be united any longer over the attractions of cricket—40 per cent are now of non Anglo-Saxon or Irish origin— but they are united in the view that the whole airline business is a swindle. The minority view comes from the industry and from odd characters who agree with it. If this seems a trifle hysterical, remember that this country covers three million square miles, with most of the people huddled in one corner. It takes some getting around. It also is as far from Europe as one can conveniently get. This uncharitable but generally-held view was strengthened a few weeks ago when the Australian Commonwealth Treasury, after considerable contem plation of its collective navel, published the view that Australian life would be enhanced if the entire domestic air trans port system was reorganised. This in a country where Cabinet Ministers fly busi ness class here and abroad, while their public servants fly, by virtue of their professional associations, in first class. Australia's airline industry seems strange to the outsider. Take Qantas, an airline which is in fact registered as a public company but whose shares are unlisted and owned by the Common wealth, except shares to qualify board members. It acts as if it were a capitalist organisation with $62 million profit, bursting with youth, energy, and ideas. The best idea for many years was to drop the one-type fleet policy. Last year Qantas ordered Boeing 767ERs, the first new type ordered since 1971. For many years the airline had been inhibited from operating new services or from surviving on thinner routes by the size of the 747, the only type in its fleet. The results are pleasant; 767s have replaced 747SPs into Wellington, New Zealand, providing five flights a week instead of three. They have already reduced blood pressure at Port Moresby, where decidedly basic local airport facili ties were swamped every few days as the Qantas 747 rolled in with hundreds of passengers. The 767s now operate into Noumea, and from February Manila will be included as an extension of the New Guinea service. But the greatest benefits will be in new services made possible by the 767. From April 1 a new Perth-Tokyo service starts, as the sixth 767 is delivered in March. Brisbane-Cairns-Tokyo also opens April 1, Burgeoning Japanese interest in Queensland fully justifies this develop ment, just as the Perth services to Tokyo and other Asian ports will increase the flow of Australian meat, fruit, vegetables, and certain sea foods into a growing market. ::!SSft';: ;^|8*: :" '^V:: : ::[ :;:^:^:^:^^'v:>$w!yS: Qantas has been reaping the benefits of hunger for fresh meat, fruit, and vegeta bles in Japan, Hong Kong, and South East and South Asia. This is a fast growing industry in its own right, as is the trans port of certain livestock and blood stock out of Australia. Qantas has even flown a good deal of grown grass to Bahrain. These exports help to offset the problem of imbalance in the international air cargo industry in Australia, which has played a part in preventing the airlines from providing fully adequate inward capacity in peak periods. One of the decisions Qantas must make fairly quickly concerns an all-cargo aircraft. The problem has been solved in recent years by agreements with JAL, Lufthansa, and Air New Zealand for Qantas to take 50 per cent of all space aboard all-cargo aircraft flown into Australia by those airlines—a DC-8 in the case of Air NZ, and 747s for the two others. Qantas is now certain to operate at least one all-cargo aircraft within the next year or two, most likely a 767. Last year Qantas carried 44 per cent of all passenger traffic in and out of Austra lia, and 37 • 6 per cent of all cargo, with the latter figure rising this year. No Austra lian Government has allowed any locally- owned competitor, though there have been several proposals by financial groups of varying reliability. The majority proposed 58 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 4 January 1986
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