Richard Branson won't be running a domestic Canadian airline in this decade, more because his "announcement" at the press conference was mere bravado to a question I asked, and to which he stumbled over the answer until his number 2 saved him. He had praised WestJet for competing again Air Canada [more to the truth, for eating into CP's western base shuttle market]. This was the only other Canadian airline he could recall the name of after Air Canada, and he had never heard of RootsAir. But when his number crunchers get through, Branson will find that there is no place in the market for him because WestJet controls the low cost market in the west, and Royal looks as if it is doing quite well in central Canada. [How CanJet will fare in the thinner Atlantic market is the real question in the emerging competition scenario.]

Branson is only interested in cream skimming, which he will do with Virgin Atlantic out of YYZ -- but as long as BA operates ex-YVR VR will never enter that market -- but there is no place within Canada to fly given the amount of competition alrady there for the low end of the market -- which is what his domestic services are.

This has nothing to do with whether the Canadian govenrment changes its ownership rules or not: let Britain and the U.S. do so, and I say go ahead Ottawa. But for every high density route a foreign carrier takes on, it better also cover a less dense route, otherwise it is not an level playing field. [We saw how many entrepreneurs were interested in Canadian Regional, old aircraft or not. It just is not a lucrative market for low fare competition.] But unti l these advocates of free markets re-examine their own domestic protectionism, don't blame Ottawa. There is more competition in Canada on the key air routes than there is in the United States. Have you seen low-cost scheduled charters operating domestically on any U.S. routes? Yet Canada3000, Royal and Air Transat have been permitted to do so for years by Ottawa. That the majority of Canadians still selected AC and CP over them, is indicative of something, and it isn't lack of competition.

As for Branson's Australian run at it, he was actually a late comer to the domestic low cost market, and certainly not the setter of low fares he would have us believe. I predict he will pull out of that market after loosing a fair bit. But right now he needs the shuttles to feed Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide originating passengers onto his Virgin Atlantic service. This discount image is a charade.