Access Economics Report says open up the skies!
A National Tourism and Aviation Advisory Committee study and resulting report by Access Economics study was nearly scrapped in January, due to objections by Qantas and the Federal Department of Transport, but rescued by Federal Minister Government has warned that “a slowing in the pace of liberalisation” of international air routes could damage international inbound tourism growth and the national economy.
The study focused on the benefits of increased access for Middle Eastern airlines and appears to be have been taken into account by Federal Transport Minister Mark Vaile in his announcement this week two Middle East carriers Emirates and Etihad had been granted approval to substantially increase their services into Australia by 2011 and another, Qatar to commence oeprations.
With Qantas continuing to protest about the growing influence of international carriers, in particular from the Middle Eastern, the study says that doubling airline capacity from the Middle East into Australia will bring an extra 93,000 extra tourists, injecting $483 million into the economy every year in addition to creating an extra 5133 tourism jobs by 2010.
Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon’s reaction to the increased and new Middle East carriers’ services announcements was that increased competition would increase the need for Qantas to slash costs even further, adding, “Today’s announcement simply reinforces what we said last week in relation to Qatar Airways and what we believed to be a likely outcome of these latest talks, in that Qantas must continue to restructure and lower its cost base to remain competitive”.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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