DeltaB717 wrote: I think it's important for people to understand (and I have said this before) that the new HND capacity has come as absolutely no surprise to QF, VA or any of the relevant airport operators (no doubt tourism bodies and state government departments, too). Airline operators routinely participate in ASA and capacity negotiations - physically at the table with the government reps from both sides - and are therefore aware to an extent what each other's intentions are. I know for a fact both QF and VA were actively involved in and present at the HND negotiations, and I would hazard a guess that NH and JL were too. JQ is, of course, represented by QF. I have also personally been in meetings where one operators intentions for Japan were alluded to off-hand, and nobody in that room batted an eyelid - that was in September this year, indeed on the day the IASC first invited applications for this capacity.
The one thing I do find humorous, and somewhat ironic, is the ACCC Letter which is in favour of a Virgin allocation.
https://www.iasc.gov.au/applications/fi ... r_2019.pdf"Flights between Australia and Japan: Virgin Australia’s application would enable it to commence operations between Australia and Japan, introducing a fourth airline to the route."
That is a tremendously factually incorrect statement. Virgin Australia could commence operations at any time, right now absent HND slots.
I also enjoy the somewhat irony in:
"The ACCC considers that allocating one frequency to each of Virgin Australia and Qantas would facilitate greater competition between Virgin Australia and Qantas, and other foreign carriers, on routes between Australia and Japan (including Brisbane and Tokyo). Virgin Australia does not currently operate flights to Japan in its own right, so Virgin Australia commencing flights on any route to Japan would naturally enable it to be a more effective competitor than at present."
Note the part at the end "Virgin Australia commencing flights on any route to Japan would naturally enable it to be a more effective competitor". Well der!! Kinda stating the obvious but to me if Virgin were to start BNE-NRT against QF's already BNE-NRT isn't competition satisfied against this ACCC criteria?
Overall I'm sure the ACCC submission is trying to tell the IASC to give Virgin a slot but this is probably one of the worst IASC submissions I've seen the ACCC do. Also highlights why they normally take so long to get things done as well if this is the best they can come up with in 5 days.
Anyway, with 1 slot each I suppose we will soon learn about the codeshare arrangement Virgin and NH intend to enter into. That'll be interesting in and of itself given the Commissions bias against free sale codeshares or, indeed, if they go for a Joint Business rather than codeshare arrangement.