Qantas passengers secretly slugged
By Steve Creedy and Verity Edwards
22-12-2005
From: The Australian
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17637210-421,00.html
QANTAS domestic passengers flying to and from Adelaide were secretly slugged $5.50 per flight for more than a month to cover the extra expense of the $260 million terminal they were not using.
Qantas confirmed yesterday that it added a new $5.50 passenger facility charge to domestic fares on November 1. It was paid to Adelaide airport and designed to cover the costs of the new terminal.
However, the airline did not take off the charge until December 9, when it became clear it would be unable to move its domestic flights to the troubled terminal because of problems with its fuel distribution system.
"For domestic services, Qantas put the increase in place as of November 1, when we expected domestic flights to commence," said the airline's head of corporate communications relations, Belinda de Rome.
"There have been a series of delays, however, so we reverted to the old terminal charge."
Qantas is now offering to refund the charge, likely to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Virgin Blue spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said the smaller airline did not introduce the charge or increase base fares.
"We'll look at our options if and when we move into the facility. If we do go down that path it won't be tax, it will be a fare change and we will be fully transparent about what it is."
Adelaide airport managing director Phil Baker yesterday said there was "no point crying" about the sixth delay to opening the terminal since early October, when workers contaminated fuel pipes with anti-corrosive paint.
"I'm well aware that everybody's been working literally their cough off to get this up and running," Mr Baker said.
Yesterday he revealed that a temporary bypass replacing the contaminated pipes would not be ready until next year. The original pipes have been cleared -- but will take at least a week to commission.
While not accepting responsibility for the fuel lines, Mr Baker said he would take the heat for the terminal. "I'm responsible for running this airport so the buck stops with me."
The embattled airport has faced the mounting ire of the Government and the business community as the saga reaches farcical proportions.
Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said the matter needed resolution "before the airport becomes a total laughing stock for the rest of Australia".
"Here we are at the height of the Christmas season when people are tramping in and out of capital cities, and they'll come into a Third World airport and on the way out go past a state-of-the-art airport -- it ain't a good look for us at all," he said.
Qantas executive general manager, airports and catering, Grant Fenn said Qantas was disappointed it would not be able to use the new terminal over Christmas.
Exxon Mobil spokesman Alan Bailey said its sole interest was ensuring the fuel system was ready for use. "It's certainly taking a lot longer than we would have anticipated to clear the hydrant around the airport of water and other assorted debris that got in there during the course of construction," he said.