Melburnian1
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
- 24,673
I read in either 'The Australian' 'AFR', 'The Age' or 'SMH' in the last couple of weeks about a travel source describing forward European bookings by air as 'quite disappointing.' The comment was specifically referring to June (and perhaps May), months for which one might expect Australians travelling to Europe might have booked back in February or before. Unfortunately I cannot find the article. It must have been from someone with access to airline GDS.
This was a general comment (not aimed at airlines that have lately been in the news such as MH and QF).
If true, it must be concerning for many airlines given the intense competition on the Kangaroo route as yields per seat must be under a bit of pressure.
At a quick guess, using the same operator all the way through, one can choose (for a UK trip) to go on its 'own metal' all the way from at least one Australian airport to at least one European destination on AI, BA, BI, BR. CA, CI, CX, CZ, DL, EK, EY, GA, KE, JL, MH, MU, NZ, OZ, PR, QF, QR, SQ and UA plus others that I have no doubt forgotten. That's 23 that I quickly counted. A long way from a monopoly or duopoly in which the ACCCs of the world might take interest (although in freight, there have been allegations and Federal Court findings of price fixing and now a USA style class action settled or close to it, while Flight centre was recently finded $11 million for trying to ensure airlines such as SQ did not sell tickets for less than Flight Centre could. The latter decision is now under appeal.)
This was a general comment (not aimed at airlines that have lately been in the news such as MH and QF).
If true, it must be concerning for many airlines given the intense competition on the Kangaroo route as yields per seat must be under a bit of pressure.
At a quick guess, using the same operator all the way through, one can choose (for a UK trip) to go on its 'own metal' all the way from at least one Australian airport to at least one European destination on AI, BA, BI, BR. CA, CI, CX, CZ, DL, EK, EY, GA, KE, JL, MH, MU, NZ, OZ, PR, QF, QR, SQ and UA plus others that I have no doubt forgotten. That's 23 that I quickly counted. A long way from a monopoly or duopoly in which the ACCCs of the world might take interest (although in freight, there have been allegations and Federal Court findings of price fixing and now a USA style class action settled or close to it, while Flight centre was recently finded $11 million for trying to ensure airlines such as SQ did not sell tickets for less than Flight Centre could. The latter decision is now under appeal.)