Qantas "letting us down"

Stuart Innes, tourism writer at the Adelaide Advertiser says that the South Australian Tourism Commission has urged operators to switch their business from Qantas to overseas-based airlines because they better service Adelaide.

“Qantas is letting us down,” SATC chief executive Andrew McEvoy told more than 100 operators at an inbound tourism conference yesterday in Adelaide.

Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith backed the call, encouraging people to use international flights through Adelaide, not connecting via interstate airports.

Delivering what he called “a backhander” to Qantas, Mr McEvoy complained that the national carrier had only three Adelaide international flights a week – to Singapore.

“South Australia has the most underserviced airport of any capital city in Australia,” he said.

Mr McEvoy told The Advertiser: “We are under-represented by our national carrier.

“I am saying to the tourism operators they should consider the best ways of getting their customers to SA.

“The carriers that come here on a daily basis should be supported.”

Mr McEvoy named Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, which each fly daily through Adelaide, Air New Zealand, which plans daily services by February and Malaysia Airlines, which will have five flights a week this summer.

He told the inbound tourism operators those airlines deserved their support because they gave travellers the chance to start or end their Australian holidays in Adelaide.

Mr McEvoy said Adelaide Airport had 26 international flights a week compared with Perth, which had 80 and Brisbane on more than 100.

Tourism Australia’s manager of trade development, Matt Cameron-Smith, also told the ATEC symposium of the need for direct international flights.

“Getting more direct services into Adelaide is a critical factor,” he said.

Chairman of the SA branch of ATEC, Regina Twiss, agreed with Mr McEvoy.

Ms Twiss runs the North Adelaide Heritage Group accommodation, where more than 60 per cent of guests are from overseas.

She said the four overseas-based airlines deserved operators’ support. It was convenient for travellers to come to or fly out of Adelaide because they could do so any day of the week.

“I’d encourage Qantas to step up to the plate,” she said.

Qantas regional manager for SA, Terry Simpson, acknowledged the airline had no plans to increase from its three international flights a week to Adelaide but said Qantas was “a significant contributor to the SA economy”.

The group employed 670 staff across Qantas and Jetstar in Adelaide and had served SA for decades.

Qantas and Jetstar had 550 domestic flights into and out of Adelaide each week and offered good connections with international flights in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said the number of international flights to Adelaide had doubled since 2003.

She, too, encouraged supporting such flights instead of connecting through interstate airports.

“International flights need bookings in both directions and locals should support direct Adelaide flights because we need to use them, otherwise we might lose them,” Dr Lomax-Smith said.

Mr McEvoy also told the ATEC symposium SA should not merely accept what it could get in tourism arrivals and it was time to be more aggressive and competitive in its marketing – to give tourists compelling reasons why they should visit SA.

The national chairman of ATEC, John King, said inbound tourism brought $22 billion of new money a year to Australia, making it the second most important export industry after coal.

Report by The Mole