Originally Posted by
nivsy
I probably have some sympathy with QF about the WA situation. I don't really believe I am.that happy about it. However I think it's a bit blah blah by QF. Let's face it they don't exactly hold a massive schedule out of Perth. Yes they fly some domestics around the country and they fly two scheduled international destinations (London and Singapore). A third is mooted (Rome), but come on... they are not exactly massive players out of WA, they have on going issues with Perth Airport (wonder if they used the quiet time to sort that out), and continue to charge a fortune for internal WA sectors. So in short, they can moan and moan but they are not a massive international player out if PER.
nivsy, I hear all of that and agree in some ways. My eyes truly water when I look at any australian domestic fare, having got used to overseas things. Air travel in australia is simply expensive.
But on the other hand I get that Qantas is challenged as the current aircraft cannot profitably do the ultra-long sectors such as SYD-LHR which would be perfect for an Australian-based carrier. The only reason, IMHO, that QF ever considered doing PER-LHR was because planes could not yet do SYD-LHR. Not because of any sensible market between Perth and London. We are just so very isolated, geographically.
As for internal fares, they charge what the market will pay, and the unfortunate aspect of that is that "normal" people are in competition with lucrative mines, etc with not just deep pockets but other agenda such as cutting costs by flying in staff on FIFO rather than making huge cities for staff in remote bush. We can hate that bit but it is reality. Especially in WA, where mining reigns supreme.
But back to standard cross-australia travel by normal people... there are so many that want to either visit WA or vice versa. Tens and tens of thousands waited then made their bookings on the promise of an opening date. Qantas embraced this and re-hired staff, etc and planned to make this happen. Then it was all simply stopped in a press conference. All those bookings, all that planning, vanquished.