In an article this week CLICK HERE by my illustrious colleague Peter Needham, QANTAS’ predatory approach to regional aviation and what seems to be a determined effort to squeeze out any competition, it appears especially Rex, is there for all to see!
What raised my ire was that QANTAS Link chief executive John Gissing said that the new routes they announced, were a great opportunity for travellers to explore the best of regional Australia, saying “As the national carrier, we have an important role to play in driving tourism and supporting the industry’s recovery.”
So, what as QANTAS announced and why is Rex irritated?
QANTAS has added seven new routes and two new destinations, with Rex saying it fears this will have “devastating long-term impacts on regional aviation”, adding, “History has shown that once regional airlines are squeezed out, the loss is permanent and regional and rural communities suffer the consequences,”
According to a statement by Rex: “QANTAS is choosing to incur huge losses on these routes, using Commonwealth government subsidies to finance a strategy that will destroy incumbent regional operators”, adding “A case in point is its foray into the Sydney-Orange market, which is barely big enough for one operator, with a pre-COVID patronage of 65,000 annual passengers, with since its start of operations on 20 July 2020, at the height of the pandemic in Australia, it managed an average of only 10 passengers per flight, even for only 2 return services a week!”
As we can see and very justifiably in my opinion, Rex is extremely irritated with QANTAS, as this is a clear indication of QANTAS’ predatory approach to squeezing out the competition, and most certainly not the behaviour of any airline that claims or even deserves to be called Australia’s national carrier.
If there was any airline that deserved to be called our national carrier by providing services to regional Australia, which is the real test of a national carrier, then it is not QANTAS, with QANTAS it appears, operating only when they receive subsides or the routes are profitable and not to provide services to regional towns. And hey there is nothing work with that I suppose for a commercial operator, but I would have thought not the modus operandi of a national carrier would be that it takes the non-profitable with the profitable and balance it all out!
Whether QANTAS deserves the “national carrier” accolade as an international carrier, is also in question, because amazingly, it walked away from operating flights into and out of Australia until July 2021, while international airlines that deserve that accolade of Australia’s national carrier include Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Singapore Airlines amongst others who are still flying here, while QANTAS is only operating repatriation flights which it appears are subsidised by the Australian Government, and for seats QANTAS also charges a fee to “recover costs”!
Come on Alan Joyce, it would be a nice Christmas present for Australians if you started behaving like an Australian, which I presume you are now, by for a change putting the welfare of Australians before QANTAS’ profit, then QANTAS might begin to deserve the accolade “Australia’s national carrier.
Right now QANTAS does not deserve it by a long way.
A comment and opinion on behalf of Global Travel Media by John Alwyn-Jones
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