Saving Air Services !

Eventually this Coronavirus emergency will be over and we will return to what is left of the Australian economy.  After a long period of forced isolation it is likely that most people will be keen to resume their former lifestyle of holidays, both in the delights this country offers and in the rest of the world.  That depends on what is left of the existing airline industry.

We have only to look back a few decades to remember when airlines in Australia were strictly controlled to prevent outside competition. Qantas was the national airline for overseas travel and was prevented from carrying passengers between Australian cities.  That was the preserve of the Ansett or TAA duopoly and their airfares were uniformly expensive.  Their flight times were identical and more suited to the running of the airline than for the convenience of the passengers.

That was the era when most Australians travelling to Europe endured six weeks on a ship because overseas air flights were simply too expensive for holiday budgets.  The arrival of the Boeing 707 aircraft with high seating capacity changed that and airlines became the play thing of high end entrepreneurs.  The days of cheap world travel had arrived.

Unfortunately, the airline industry involves high finance.  Jet liners come with a multi million dollar price tag and many airlines run at a loss, subsidized by state funds because they are seen as a national asset.  There is every expectation that during this Coronavirus austerity campaign some long standing airline names may disappear from the skies and it would be a disaster if when the dust settles we have Qantas exercising an airline monopoly in this country.

Australia is a big continent with a small population by world standards. Eventually we may see Sydney and Melbourne connected by a high speed bullet train, but it is unlikely that will connect other state capitals during the remains of this century.  The economic s just don't stand up given the distances involved and the present passenger volumes.  It is essential that travel within and without Australia remain in competition between a number of different air services.

The shutdown of air services to help isolate the spread of this virus is putting extraordinary financial pressure on both Qantas and Virgin and both are looking to the Federal government for subsidies to survive. We are warned that relief measures already in play will expand the deficit by many billions of dollars but without a competitive airline industry the Australian way of life will be changed forever.

Perhaps the biggest change to impact Australian society when the virus impact fades into obscurity will be the price and availability of travel.  That will wither and die unless enough airlines survive to maintain competition  !