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Qantas/Cathay Dispute Goes to Court

The dispute between Cathay Pacific and the Australian Government over Qantas’ Asian regional services from Hong Kong (refer p7 June 95 AA) is to be subject to a court ruling. Cathay Pacific is asking the Federal Court to overturn the Government’s decision to approve Cathay’s current Australian schedules only to June 30th this year on the basis that it is unlawful and a misuse of government powers. This move was made in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government imposing similar restrictions on Qantas and potentially Ansett. The matter was due for hearing as this issue of Australian Aviation went to press though the Government had indicated it was willing to extend Cathay’s operating permit beyond June 30 as an interim measure. Cathay Pacific says there is no dispute over third and fourth freedom traffic rights between Australia and Hong Kong but that Qantas has been abusing its onward (fifth freedom) traffic rights from Hong Kong to Singapore and Bangkok by carrying more than 90% of traffic which originates in Hong Kong. Cathay has described the Australian Government’s decision to effectively ban the airline from Australia after July 30 as heavy handed and denying it a fair and equal opportunity to operate its services. For its part, Qantas has said that Cathay Pacific enjoys virtually unrestricted rights to carry Australians anywhere, but simultaneously wants to severely limit the number of passengers Qantas takes from Australia to other destinations via Hong Kong. Cathay for instance claims that around 90% of the traffic out of Hong Kong into Qantas’ Bangkok/Singapore network are HK originating with many going onto Europe via the airline’s nonstop services out of these ports. The bad publicity has already slowed bookings at Cathay and created uncertainty for people wishing to prebook travel on both Qantas and Ansett. The route is one of the most profitable in all three carriers’ longhaul networks and is worth about one billion dollars a year in turnover. Cathay of course is striking at a time when the Government does not need this level of uncertainty and public conflict adversely affecting the value of its about to be floated Qantas losing one of its primary routes. The outcome will be interesting and certainly the Government’s eleventh hour decision to extend Cathay’s operating permit does not solve the problem, only puts it off to a later date.

Euro Regional Aircraft Contracts Signed

The European joint venture regional aircraft company – a combination of ATR, Avro and Jetstream – has come closer to reality with the signing of contractual documents between British Aerospace, Aerospatiale and Alenia. In addition, the company has been given a name and the first senior appointments made. The organisation will be known as Aero International Regional (AIR) and will be headquartered in Toulouse. Its first managing director will be Henri-Paul Puel (ATR’s president), while the chairmanship will rotate, starting with Alenia’s Nino d’Angelo followed by BAe’s Mike Turner and Aerospatiale’s Louis Gallois. AIR will initially market and support the Jetstream 31 and 41, the ATR 42 and 72 and the Avro RJ70/80/100/115 family. As previously noted, the BAe ATP/J61 turboprop has been dropped but support for the existing fleet will continue under the AIR banner.

Ansett NZ Dash 8 Crashes

An Ansett New Zealand de Havilland Dash 8 turboprop crashed on approach to Palmerston North airport after a flight from Auckland on June 9. Three of the 20 people on board were killed, a flight attendant and two passengers. The female FA was seated in a backward facing crew seat abeam the front door while the two passengers who died were seated in the last row. Both the pilots survived the accident, albeit severely injured, which occurred 17km north of the airport in bad weather with very poor visibility. The high survival rate was the result of the aircraft’s fuselage remaining basically intact after impact, this factor indicating it might have struck the ground while under control. A flash fire caused further injuries. The accident occurred just as this issue of AA was going to press so no official cause has been offered as yet. There has been speculation in the New Zealand media that the aircraft was lower than it should have been and that there was an undercarriage problem which may have distracted the crew. In addition, the aircraft was following a recently introduced flightpath which has been subject to some controversy as it takes aircraft closer to high and rough terrain than the previous path. One of the surviving passengers showed remarkable presence of mind after the accident. Finding his mobile telephone, he rang emergency services and then guided rescue helicopters to the scene by phone, using their sound as visibility was extremely poor. He also found time to ring his wife to tell her what had happened, leaving a message on their answering machine!

Ansett Teams with MAS

Ansett and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have settled upon a codesharing agreement which will give the Australian operator a relatively low cost entry to the South East Asian market. The deal allows Ansett to sell 800 seats per week on MAS services from August, giving Ansett the opportunity to offer daily services between Melbourne and Sydney and Kuala Lumpur three months before it starts operations in its own right. Ansett and MAS already have a codesharing agreement under which Malaysia Airlines gains access to Ansett’s domestic networks in Australia and New Zealand. Ansett will begin its own twice weekly Sydney/Kuala Lumpur nonstop service on November 1.

Macchi Collision Error of Judgement

The enquiry into the collision and crash of two 76 Squadron Macchi MB-326H jet trainers near RAAF Williamtown last October has found an error of judgement to be the cause with a lack of currency contributing to it. 6 Australian Aviation July 1995. The pilots of the two aircraft ejected safely after colliding during a ‘two on one’ air combat manoeuvring (ACM) exercise, the enquiry finding that one of the pilots failed to maintain collision avoidance procedures with the other two. It was found that the pilot had not acted wilfully, but rather his action was an error of judgement. The low level of pilot experience and a lack of currency in ACMs contributed to the accident, the latter resulting from restrictions placed on Macchi flying hours due to continuing fatigue life problems. The accident can therefore be described as resulting from a systemic problem as much as anything else. A lack of currency was also attributed as a major factor in the loss of an F-111 in September 1993 (refer p25 April 95 AA).

Civil Aviation Act Amendment Dropped

A proposed amendment to the Civil Aviation Act has been dumped following pressure from several quarters including Liberal Senator Warwick Parer. The amendment to Section 20A of the act would have read: “(1) An aircraft must not be flown or operated in a reckless or negligent manner so as to be an actual or potential danger to the life of any person; (2) An aircraft must not be flown or operated in such a manner or in such circumstances so as to be an actual or potential danger to any person or property”. The wording “an actual or potential danger …” opened up the possibility of serious unintended consequences in that technically, any aircraft in flight was a potential danger to persons and property. Therefore, the simple act of taking off (or even starting the engine) could be regarded as being a breach of the Act. The Minister responsible for the amendment was Laurie Brereton.

Westfield Australian Airport Involvement?

Sydney based Westfield Holdings has been holding discussions with a foreign based bidder to form part of a consortium for one or more of Australia’s soon to be privatised airports. While Westfield Managing Director David Lowy did not disclose who the bidder was, it is widely speculated to be Airport Group International, the newly named US firm jointly owned by Lockheed Martin and Soros Capital. Westfield says that its skills as a retail developer, builder and manager would be ideally suited to playing a role in an airport operator consortium. Westfield has only recently entered airport management with the award of a 15 year contract as the retail developer and manager at Washington’s National and Dulles airports. A major airport’s retail sector is big business. The FAC gains 40% of its revenue ($A165m in 1994) from Sydney airport alone from retail concession rents – as much as it earns from landing charges. The remaining 20% of FAC revenue from Sydney comes from office leases etc. Other major airports have similar breakdowns of revenue, making it easy to understand why so many new shops have been included in Australian airport developments in recent years.

Geelong/Sydney Numbers Up

Passenger numbers on Hazelton’s struggling Geelong/Sydney direct services have been boosted in recent weeks via a publicity campaign that has raised the profile of the flights to the Geelong community. Hazelton has had to struggle against initially lukewarm business interest and active discouragement of the major airline aligned travel agents to get sustainable traffic on the new route. However, growing support and appreciation of the services from the Geelong community saw traffic improve steadily to 440 passengers for a recent week, compared with 380 the week before. Hazelton is now confident that the flights are breaking even, and the airline is considering adding a second, later departure to Sydney, to cater more for leisure travellers. The current service operates from Avalon to Sydney and return with Saab 340s.

Sydney Tower Delays

Teething problems with Sydney airport’s new high tech control tower have again delayed its opening. The tower, which the CAA describes as the “best equipped control tower of any airport in the world” was originally due to open in March, but this was delayed to Good Friday due to the NSW State elections. A further deadline of June 10 has also passed, the slippage of the last two dates attributed to teething problems. At the time of writing the CAA was unprepared to put a date on the tower’s opening in case of further problems. The niggling problems include glare created by the sun at some times of day, software glitches and incorrect alignment of the roof mounted airfield surveillance radar.