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National Jet currently operates a single BAe 146-100 on the Santos contract in addition to flying Australian Airlines cargo four nights a week on the Adelaide/Melbourne/ Sydney routes.

 Coastwatch Keeps South Coast Covered:

Coastwatch has extended its area of operations by commencing routine surveillance flights over the southern Australian coastline.

The southern regions of the east and west coasts of Australia have been considered by Customs as being somewhat neglected for some time, though surveillance is regularly carried out by the Defence forces and to a lesser extent by cooperative private operators. Therefore, with the recent delivery of

three new IAI SeaScan jet surveillance aircraft, Coastwatch coverage has been extended to include the southern Australian coastline, with aircraft flying south from their more northerly bases and covering either the east or west coasts en route.

Rather than concentrating on ilegal immigration, wildlife and drug smuggling detection missions as is necessary across Australia’s northern coastline, the southern surveillance operations will primarily be aimed at detecting illegal fishing activities by foreign vessels, such activities remaining a problem right round Australia. An in-depth report on Coastwatch’s new SeaScan aircraft will be presented in our July edition.

 New Air Traffic Lane for Sydney:

A new corridor, aimed at improving the flow of light aircraft around Sydney, has been agreed to by the Civil Aviation Authority and the Australian Defence Force.

The corridor will be established in June and will be in existing military airspace. between Emu Plains and Wisemans Ferry. Agreement was reached at a recent meeting of the joint CAA and ADF Air Co-ordinating Committee, held for the first time outside. Canberra at RAAF Base Richmond. Co-chairmen of the committee, the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Tom O’Brien. and the CAA’s GM Airways Operations, Phil Bowen, said the two way lane will ease the pressure on the existing light aircraft corridor

north of Bankstown.

The committee also endorsed a large reduction in the size of the Richmond Control Zone. The co-chairmen said this would provide greater access to of the RAAF AVM O’Brien said the ADF would continue to cooperate closely with the CAA in streamlining the management of Australian airspace, something that will benefit both civil and military users.

Military cooperation with the CAA over airspace management remains a contentious issue in Australia. For an in-depth analysis of the situation, refer to our article on the subject on p. 25 of this issue.

 Anz’s Former CEO “Jumped”:

Air New Zealand’s chief executive Jim Scott was not pushed out of the company he jumped, according to the airline’s chairman, Bob Mat- thew, reports our NZ correspondent Michael Shart.

Mr Matthew would not say why Mr Scott. 46, who was chief executive for three years, left the airline, reports the New Zealand Herald, New Zealand’s leading daily. Asked if Mr Scott would have been fired if he had not resigned, Mr Matthew also said he did not “have an appetite to be executive chairman

or chief executive”. The airline’s chairman contends that Mr Scott’s sudden departure was based on the realisation that the airline was “entering a new era”. Mr Jim McCrea, formerly the deputy CEO, is now acting CEO. He was previously the airline’s chief engineering manager.

 Continental Rep Defects to Northwest:

Continental’s well known GM of Australian operations, Mr Colin Hughes, has changed allegiances to join rival carrier Northwest.

Mr Hughes’ departure is a blow to Continental as he is regarded as having been instrumental in the successful marketing of the airline in this region. Instead he will now put his past experience to good use and oversee Northwest’s entry into the South Pacific market, to which it gained access by purchasing Hawaiian Airlines Australian route rights.

Mr Hughes joined Continental in 1985 and did much to establish the airline in the locall market, to the extent that Continental now operates 23 fights per week into Australia, more than any other US carrier. He was also responsible for having Continental upgrade its DC-10 services to 747s and was instrumental in the introduction of several new services, including those to Guam, Brisbane. and New Zealand.

Australian, Ansett Combat Compass Offers:

In the wake of Compass initiative of slating 20 seats per fight for deep discount fares (up to 70% off the regular fare) both Ansett and Australian have responded by making remarkably similar offers.

Both major domestics launched their new special discounted fares on 9 May for flights. on key routes. Like Compass, each airline offered their discounted fares for travel between 15 May this year and 30 April next year, each specified that tickets had to be paid for by 31 May this year, and each offered seats on a similar limited basis of 20 seats per fight. Australian termed its special rates the Best Fare module Ansett move the fares “These fares prove you pay no more at Ansett Australia”.

Interestingly, a perusal of the fares on offer reveals some remarkable similarities: Melbourne/Sydney $85 one way and $170 return on both Ansett and Australian; Syd- ney/Brisbane both $85 one way, $170 return; Melbourne/Brisbane both $125, $250; Melbourne/Cairns – both $175, $350; Sydney/Cairns both $165, $330: Sydney/ Perth both again $165, $330; Adelaide/ Sydney-both $100, $200; etc, etc.

Tickets are naturally limited, simply to enable the airlines to keep flying. But at least the special fares do show the difference that just one real competitor can make in the travel market, with passengers at last offered the prospect of truly discounted travel. And the key to the special offers. (besides deregulated competition)? The airlines’ new computer reservations systems which can more accurately identify empty pockets of seats on flights, therefore helping to determine the potential availability of discount fares.

Ansett, Australian Announce Full Fare Economy Upgrades:

Both Ansett Australia and Australian Airlines have announced the upgrading of their inflight catering standards for passengers travelling on full fare economy tickets.

Ansett was first to announce the new catering standards, following on from its earTer initiative of introducing four abreast business seating. The introduction of new standards for full fare economy passengers recognises that many economy passengers are in fact business travellers, who most often cannot book ahead to take advantage of discount fares and who sometimes may also travel business class. These full fare paying passengers will therefore receive on both airlines new crockery for meals and free newspapers as distributed to first and business class passengers, as well as free drinks including beer, spirits and wines-which up until now all economy passengers have had to pay for during the fight.

These will, we believe, not be offered free of charge to discounted ticket holders though how the flight attendants will know just who is eligible’ in a crowded cabin on a busy short sector is something that presently eludes us!

This now effectively makes both Ansett and Australian four class carriers: first, business, full fare economy and discount economy. This will require a greater degree of organisation to determine which economy. passenger is entitled to what, and at the time of writing negotiations with the flight attendants’ union over the matter were continuing.

Packer Buys DC-8:

Businessman and keen polo player Kerry Packer has purchased a DC-8 for private operations, with the aircraft at this stage currently undergoing refurbishment in the US.

AA believes that the reason for the purchase is due, in the main, to the logistics of transporting a number of noin teams around ner a job well beyond the capacity of Kerry. Packer’s Gulfstream II.

The US company supplying the DC-8 recently made another of the same model available to Mr Packer for polo tournaments being held in the UK. (Gavin Pringle)

Partial Deregulation in WA Is No Open Slather for New Entrants:

The Western Australia Minister for Transport, Pam Beggs, has announced that competition will now be allowed on jet routes in the State. This includes the introduction of propeller aircraft in competition with jet services. However, entry to present non-jet routes will not be permitted.

The partial deregulation of intrastate routes has a safety net built in because the State Government will continue to license and collect fees from all operators on intrastate routes. The Government has also stated that it will take corrective licensing action. where services were not maintained at acceptable levels to smaller centres.

The routes concerned are listed below and range from 7,502 to 77,230 passengers. per annum. Some of the ports are part of triangulated routes while others are part of linear routes linking to Darwin as well as Perth.

PERTH to. . . ANNUAL PAX Karratha 77,230 Kalgoorlie 55,064 Port Hedland 40,067 Broome 31,435 Geraldton 21,725 Paraburdoo 16,241 15,458 12,636 12,431 9,347 7,502 Kununurra Derby Newman Learmonth Carnarvon Despite the change, Western Australia will continue to approve all intrastate fares as part of its standard air transport licensing procedure. Since the demise of the Independent Air Fares Committee, this tariff approval is not required in other States such as Victoria or New South Wales.

The decision is a compromise between the extremes of continuing the previous monopoly licensing and full deregulation. The State Government favoured deregulation of interstate services and saw an inconsistency with its internal situation now that Perth/east coast services are benefiting. from competition since Compass began its popular flights to the west.

The change was prompted by several proposals to commence jet operations in Western Australia. Ansett WA has had no competition within Western Australia since the takeover of Skywest was approved by the Trade Practices Commission in 1988, when no buyers could be found for a forced divestiture. It is understood some groups are proceeding to set up operations in the west but it will be some time before any services are possible. The experience of deregulation elsewhere inion will result in small routes with an improved frequency. Thus the competition may result in some jet services being replaced by propeller aircraft to load factors. However, the relatively long sector distances in WA will make slower propeller aircraft unpopular with passengers.

Meanwhile, four other States still regulate internal air services in varying degrees. Only Victoria and SA are completely deregulated. NSW conducted a review of its route licensing last year and the Minister for Transport then announced that no change would be made at this stage because of the severe downturn that airlines were encountering as a result of the rural recession. This was reinforced when Norfolk Airlines recently went into liquidation. (Kan Ryan)

March Quarter Figures High-Light Changing Traffic Patterns:

Data released by the DoTC (refer Airline Affairs for full tables) illustrates the subtle and not so subtle changes that have occurred since deregulation on 1 November last.

The March quarter was slightly down on the record December ’90 quarter largely as at result of low January and February business traffic and the full blooded effects of Desert Storm. March quarter ’91 in comparison with previous March quarters though was still at record in Revenue Passenger Kilometre (RPK) terms. During the quarter, 3,618 milion. RPKs were flown, which even with a recession should see this year exceeding the rec- ord RPKs set in 1988. This is an increase of 27. 8% and 13. 2% over the March quarters ’90 and ’89 respectively and a fall of 3. 4% in comparison with the December quarter.

What has broadly occurred has been not so much a rapid growth in the number of passengers but rather a marked increase in the distances people are now routinely flying. within Australia. Analysing the DoTC top 20 routes data tables (published each issue) for the months of September 90 and March 91 it is apparent that the transcontinental route has boosted overall RPKs greatly since Compass began operations in early Decem- ber. Traffic Sydney/Perth (comparing Mar ’91 with Sept ’90) had increased by 38% taking the sector from 16 to 11 in order of traffic. Similarly, Melbourne/Perth had increased by 15% from 11 to 7.

The increase in pax in March alone from Sydney and Melbourne to Perth was more than 20,000, indicating the strength of the potential east/west market if affordable fares are available. Previously these people would have either not travelled at all, taken the train or endured an unbearably long coach trip. Catering for the additional trayellers is an enormous increase in capacity, something that has reduced yield as load factors on the routes have dropped from a pre-deregulation 86% to just above 65% for March. By comparison, a similar non-stop route that Compass doesn’t operate on is Melbourne/Brisbane. Last September this had a load factor of nearly 82% for 530 trips whilst in March the load factor was 78% for 655 trines The lesson here is that while there between Ansett and Australian, it really takes the arrival of Compass onto a route to greatly broaden its potential.

Comparing the two months, overall load factor systemwide was 76. 7% against 67. 2% while the top 20 routes logged 75. 7% against 68. 9%. Total increase in trips was 2,359, from 12,999 to 15,358, whilst RPKs increased from 1,069,557,087 to 1,219,350,392 whilst the number of individual passengers increased from 1,116,099 to 1,240,836.

Year to date figures from the DoTC up till mid April (the latest data available) also indicates that we are just ahead of the record 1988 year in passenger terms but well ahead (11%) in RPKs, whilst overall load factor has: dropped from 75. 3% to 69. 7%, a figure that by US standards would still be considered in the ‘luxurious’ class!

Continental Hoping to Trade Out of Bankruptcy Ahead of Schedule:

Continental Airlines hopes to be able to trade out of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy by early next year with month to month profitability being achieved during the coming northern summer, In a major debt reorganisation plan, Continental hopes to attract something in the order of a bilion dollars in additional investment by this July, in addition to being able to make a profit this northern summer through having the lowest available seat kilometre. (ASK) costs of any major US carrier. For sale are Chelsea, the airline’s profitable catering. service, and Air Micronesia. The Air Mike sale alone would bring in something in the order of $700m and would be structured to allow Continental to still enjoy the formidable hubbing strength that, along with Honolulu, is the very heart of its profitable South. Pacific network.

An in-depth update of Continental’s finan cial position and its new corporate image will be featured in our next issue.

Compass Orders Sixth Airbus:

Compass has ordered one additional Airbus A300-600R to take its fleet by year end to six of type.

Meanwhile, the fourth aircraft to join the fleet will not now be operational till this Spring following an accident with the aircraft at Toulouse prior to its planned delivery to Brisbane in April. Whilst undergoing routine pre-delivery checks it was noticed that one of the wing fuel tanks was leaking. The aircraft was then refuelled except that the maintenance team had forgotten to also empty fuel from the large tank located in the tail. The result was that the A300 eventually tipped onto its tail as the CofG altered, causing sufficient damage to necessitate a major stripdown of the rear fuselage. The aircraft is now being repaired (it still being the property of Polaris Leasing, not Compass) but will not enter service till later this year. In its place Airbus has been able to substitute a similar aircraft that was previously destined for a Middle East carrier.

An in-depth interview with Compass CEO, Bryan Grey will appear in our next issue