philosophy

Australia

The Qantas philosophy

For one reason or another, Qan tas has found itself in the firing line in the events since the air

fare revolution got underway,

not just in the Pacific area but in Southeast Asia and further afield. PIM asked Qantas for its

philosophy toward Pacific

travel.

The operations of trunk car riers on the Pacific have

changed fundamentally in re

cent years. Qantas for instance believes that the prime re sponsibility of the trunk carrier is to carry passengers from its own country to the Pacific Islands.

It is not, for instance, the role

of Qantas to provide capacity from the US to Fiji nor for Pan Am to worry about Fiji-bound Australians, In the past, airlines have to a varying degree, catered for markets other than our own.

This was not a deliberate policy but grew out of an earlier practice of trunk carriers in serving short haul and long haul destinations on the same services.

For example, Qantas was mixing on the same aircraft short haul passengers from Australia to Fiji with long haul passengers from Australia to North America. The increasing pressure for lower fares meant that airlines .needed to operate services in the most economical possible way. The earlier practice of mixing various passengers for varied destinations was not the most economical way

of operating.

For instance, by calling at Nadi en route to North America, Qantas operated with a large number of empty seats from Nadi to Honolulu and the US west coast because many more passengers travelled from Sydney to Nadi and got off than got on at Nadi and trav elled to Honolulu and North America.

Since one of the fundamen tal truths of airline operations is that someone has to pay for

empty seats, operating through

Nadi on the Australia-North America route meant fares had

to be higher than they might

have been. Since this is unac ceptable both from the point of view of the consumer and

the airline - Qantas changed its pattern of operations.

The long haul services be tween Australia and North America operate in the optimum way non-stop be tween Sydney and Honolulu with the Sydney-Fiji market served separately. The four ter

minating flights weekly are ex

clusively for Fiji-bound traffic

with additional services to cope with school holiday peaks, Qantas is not in the business of island hopping. We believe the South Pacific is well served by regional carriers whose job that is: Air Pacific servicing Noumea, Vila and Honiara on the way to Brisbane and Tonga en route to Auckland as well as local 'island services; Polynesian Airlines from West ern Samoa; South Pacific Island Airways from American

Samoa; Air Caledonia from New Caledonia; Air Melanesiae from the New Hebrides; Solair from Solomon Islands and Air Polynesia from Tahiti.

These regional carriers, which take over from the trunk carriers at major air route centres like Nadi, themselves benefit from the increased traf fic generated by the trunk car riers.

Does Qantas give a ‘damn’ about the South Pacific re gional carriers? Yes we do. We assisted in the establishment and development of Air Pa cific, New Hebrides Airways

and Air Niugini, providing

contract staff for management.

However, we believe that civil aviation policy for the Pacific should be evolved by the coun tries of the Pacific.

Qantas Boeing 747 Pacific bound from Sydney ... future developments rest with Island operators