A Malaysian view of the Australian Government’s shunning of Emirates plans to bring more tourists

A report in the Malaysia Sun provides some interesting commentary about the relationship between the Australian Federal Government, Qantas and Emirates.

It says that despite deregulating the airline industry in the late 1980s, the Australian government still provides extraordinary protection for its national carrier, Qantas, with Singapore Airlines continuing to be denied access to the U.S. west coast route from Australian cities, while Emirates is being restricted to half the services it wants to operate.

Reporting that Tim Clarke, President of Emirates, was in Melbourne for the opening of the airline’s new lounge, built at a cost of $2.5 million, the fourth such lounge opened in Australia this year, the report adds that in all Emirates has pumped more than $1 billion into its Australian operations.

The airline operates daily or twice-daily flights to and from Dubai originating from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth and the flights from all cities, except Brisbane, in the main are direct flights.

Clarke says Emirates aim is to fly four times a day from each city.

The report says that the only stumbling block, as Singapore Airlines has found, is Qantas, which doesn’t want the competition.

Clarke says Emirates accounts for around 8% to 9 % of the Australian market, and even if it went to its preferred capacity, it would still take up 15% to 16%.

He says Australia is being denied tourists from Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe that Qantas doesn’t even service.  He added that inbound tourism into Australia has been declining for some years, with current arrivals down 5% on last year with tourism industry officials laying the blame at the State and Federal government level.

Qantas says Emirates is advantaged by being owned by the government of Dubai, but Emirates says Dubai has an open-skies policy with 120 airlines free to operate in and out of Dubai at any level they wish – for example, Qantas could introduce flights into Dubai at any time without any restrictions.

Emirates has promoted its involvement in Australia extensively, sponsoring the iconic Melbourne Cup, and the Collingwood Football Club.

The report says that the Federal Government has openly protected Qantas, it says in the national interest, continually restricting the flow of tourists into Australia, however, particularly as most governments around the world encourage and promote tourism as a major priority, doesn’t this appear to not be in the interest of Australia at large?

Australia is a major player in developing and encouraging other nations to adopt free trade, and has made much of its deregulation of the airline industry, but in restricting the Dubai-based airline from extending its operations, the report asks if Australia should perhaps instead take a leaf out of Dubai’s book, with the city the fastest growing in the world, destined to become one of the most successful tourist destinations in history, with its open-sky policy an integral part of its plans resulting in phenomenal growth in tourist arrivals.

The Malaysians make some very good points – perhaps we should listen!

Report by The Mole