War in the air

“A real slogging match, all out „ pniiicinn ” war, a head-on collision. . .

These are some of the expressions being used to describe Qantas’ decision to increase its passenger flight frequency across the South Pacific from 10 to 13 a week to match the US challenge.

With the arrival of American Airlines—president, George Spate, was in Sydney for the first flight

across the Pacific in early August —US carriers total 13 flights across t jj e p ac ifi c a week. American has three G f them, PanAm the rest, Qantas has now followed suit by utilising its full rights under the latest Australia-US air agreement and 13 fl.ghts, all but two of them P George Spate in Sydney gave fair warning that American was not pre pared to continue accepting only And so the battle continues with three flights a week across the Pacific.

US airlines perhaps trying to top Qantas’ 13.

Qantas appears to be more con cerned about control and develop ment of the South Pacific route rather than making immediate profits.

General manager, Captain Ritchie, admitted this when announcing the new schedules: “We expect unprofit able operations on the Pacific for at least a year until the passenger loading builds up . . . this is a decision by us to match the competitive effort of the other side.” Later Qantas chair man, Sir Roland Wilson, said: “I foresee a real slogging match with our efforts to maintain Australia’s share of this very valuable foreign exchange market.”

The increased services would “provide many more seats than any of us can profitably use. This will mean a loss in operation on the Pacific for most operators for some time. But we are confident our plans for expanded Qantas will provide the most competitive pattern for the trans-Pacific service”.

Qantas also expects to make up for these losses with profits on its other routes. All these increased services will at least benefit the Pacific generally; every flight stops at least once somewhere in the Pacific whether it be Honolulu, Hawaii or Nadi.

Qantas is also relying predomin antly on a tourist market rather than a business one for its loading. And with the arrival of its Jumbo jets next year it will be able to reduce its frequencies, at the same time retaining seating capacity.

BOAC appears unperturbed by the whole fracas. A spokesman told us the company had confidence that “Hushpower” would retain sufficient passenger appeal to sustain profit ability.

BOAC however will be affected by the increased services. PanAm, UTA and Air New Zealand operate to Los Angeles, where BOAC fly from Sydney, and the company is expecting lower pay loads “for the time being”.

Later in August Air New Zealand announced that it will add another flight a week across the Pacific to bring its allocation to four. It has been estimated that with all these increased frequencies, the eight air lines operating across the Pacific will carry about 2.000 empty seats a week.

Increased frequency is also inevit ably going to intensify the demands of some aviation companies foi lower fares across the Pacific (good news, of course, for the passenger) and Qantas is suggesting a “circle_ Pacific” inclusive tour fare giving 2( to 30 per cent, discounts, at a Sep tember international air fares con ference in Honolulu.