Minister Bailey issues $A2billion Japanese tourism warning
Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey has warned that if Qantas owned Jetstar fails to sign a codeshare agreement with Japan Airlines, Australia’s $2 billion-a-year tourist trade with Japan will be in jeopardy.
Japan Airlines has announced that as a result of declining Japanese visitor numbers to Australia, it will end its service between Osaka, Brisbane and Sydney from March 2007.
Jetstar has announced that it will commence a daily service on the same route on March 25 but also says that access to Japan Airlines’ ticket sales network will be crucial to the success of the route for Jetstar.
Simon Westaway of Jetstar said Japanese law prevented Jetstar from marketing itself in Japan, with even online ticket sales banned, adding, “At the moment we are only allowed to sell seats wholesale to Japanese agents who we then rely on to onsell them through their own packages, so we are in discussion with JAL to establish a codeshare arrangement.”
Ms Bailey says she is concerned that unless the codeshare agreement was signed, it could severely hinder Australian efforts to revive the seriously declining Japanese tourist market, with Simon Westaway saying that while negotiations were at a critical stage, Jetstar was optimistic a deal could be worked out.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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