International flights for Canberra International Airport?

dvaey said :

c_c said :

Is this legit?

Big difference between setting up a whole new airline company and simply adding a destination. Really flawed thinking going on there.

Hence if you read the first part of my paragraph, it took 18 months for them to get permission to operate international services. That was for the regulatory approval, aside from the actual setup of the destinations (check-in, baggage handling, lounges, etc). In the Virgin case, the destination airports were already setup, in Canberra’s case the airport isnt even finished yet.

c_c said :

There’s said to be plane loads of international passengers from Canberra already going through Sydney. So all this is seeking to do is work out new routes where those passengers can be accommodated on direct flights. All the airlines already fly to Sydney so it’s not a big fuss for them to go an extra 300km so long as the demand exists.

All the airlines fly to Sydney? I once travelled on Tiger and when we couldnt land at Canberra airport, we were diverted to Melbourne as there were no facilities in Sydney. When I travelled with Pacific Blue a few years ago, all services departed from Brisbane, not Sydney.

How does anyone know the ‘demand exists’? Theyre only just now ‘gathering information’ getting ready to ask for expressions of interest in airlines interested in operating. Shouldnt this have been done more than 10 months before they hope to start operating?

Maybe theyre following the AMC’s lead, declaring themselves open but not actually doing anything for a month or two until things get sorted out.

They know demand exists because they have figures on how many Canberran’s travel on international flights each day. It’s not hard, you simply go the airlines and say where are you passengers to x coming from?

What they don’t yet know is how to translate that into demand for direct flights to Canberra.

There needs to be enough demand for the limited flights that they want to get going. Consumers may prefer swap overs in Sydney over the more restricted flights times available for direct flights out of Canberra for example.

As for all airlines flying into Sydney, I am not aware of any international carriers that have clearance to fly into Australia that don’t offer services in Sydney. Tiger certainly has services to and from Sydney.
Pacific Blue no longer exists, but that was a bit different. They were part of the Virgin Group, so while they had hubs at Brisbane and Christchurch, other carriers in the Virgin group services other locations. In the end, it was just branding.

dvaey said :

c_c said :

Is this legit?

Big difference between setting up a whole new airline company and simply adding a destination. Really flawed thinking going on there.

Hence if you read the first part of my paragraph, it took 18 months for them to get permission to operate international services. That was for the regulatory approval, aside from the actual setup of the destinations (check-in, baggage handling, lounges, etc). In the Virgin case, the destination airports were already setup, in Canberra’s case the airport isnt even finished yet.

c_c said :

There’s said to be plane loads of international passengers from Canberra already going through Sydney. So all this is seeking to do is work out new routes where those passengers can be accommodated on direct flights. All the airlines already fly to Sydney so it’s not a big fuss for them to go an extra 300km so long as the demand exists.

All the airlines fly to Sydney? I once travelled on Tiger and when we couldnt land at Canberra airport, we were diverted to Melbourne as there were no facilities in Sydney. When I travelled with Pacific Blue a few years ago, all services departed from Brisbane, not Sydney.

How does anyone know the ‘demand exists’? Theyre only just now ‘gathering information’ getting ready to ask for expressions of interest in airlines interested in operating. Shouldnt this have been done more than 10 months before they hope to start operating?

Maybe theyre following the AMC’s lead, declaring themselves open but not actually doing anything for a month or two until things get sorted out.

Yeah but your first statement doesn’t apply in this case… it took Virgin 18 mths for regulatory approval because they were starting a new international airline. There is no talk of a brand new airline being created out of Canberra. The approvals required to fly a new international route are much less intensive. Have a look at the lead in to QF’s Syd to Santiago new direct flights, or Syd to DFW for that matter. The lead in for those routes have been around 6 months.

The actual set-up for the destinations (baggage etc) can be well organised within the 12mth time-frame. The main concern for CBR would be appropriate Customs etc.

It’s probable that CBR could sustain direct international flights… I just wonder which airline would be willing to fly here. I doubt QF or Virgin will as I believe it will just eat into their current capacity. Perhaps Air NZ to New Zealand? And perhaps thrice weekly flights to Singapore?

In any case, most ‘full service’ global airlines (apart from the middle eastern players & chinese) are retracting rather than expanding routes. I hope they succeed, but it won’t be easy.

SnapperJack said :

Didn’t they try flights to NZ and Fiji a few years back but had to abandon it due to lack of patronage? Canberra too small for that sort of thing.

Yes, there was an attempt a few years ago that didn’t get very far – from memory it was Air Pacific with direct flights to Fiji out of the Canberra winter.

Still, Wellington, New Zealand has an international airport and has a similiar population to Canberra – 394,000 to our 360,000 (plus 34,000 in Quenabeyan) – and is an even more out of the way capital city. If they can sustain international operations then Canberra should be able to as well – and they’ve got a short runway to boot.

How much is this going to cost the ACT ratepayers? The last time an ACT Government got excited about airlines they gave millions of our dollars to a regional airline to build a large hangar at Canberra Airport. The hangar (which is badly sited and causes dangerous mechanical turbulance) is still there but the airline has departed (forgive the pun). Mr Barr, please don’t go out looking for customers; when the airport is completed in 2013 “they will come” (or they won’t)
BTW, Canberra is still an AQIS “rural destinantion” so any international flights operating combis will have a serious problem with freight entering Australia through Canberra.

Didn’t they try flights to NZ and Fiji a few years back but had to abandon it due to lack of patronage? Canberra too small for that sort of thing.

c_c said :

Is this legit?

Big difference between setting up a whole new airline company and simply adding a destination. Really flawed thinking going on there.

Hence if you read the first part of my paragraph, it took 18 months for them to get permission to operate international services. That was for the regulatory approval, aside from the actual setup of the destinations (check-in, baggage handling, lounges, etc). In the Virgin case, the destination airports were already setup, in Canberra’s case the airport isnt even finished yet.

c_c said :

There’s said to be plane loads of international passengers from Canberra already going through Sydney. So all this is seeking to do is work out new routes where those passengers can be accommodated on direct flights. All the airlines already fly to Sydney so it’s not a big fuss for them to go an extra 300km so long as the demand exists.

All the airlines fly to Sydney? I once travelled on Tiger and when we couldnt land at Canberra airport, we were diverted to Melbourne as there were no facilities in Sydney. When I travelled with Pacific Blue a few years ago, all services departed from Brisbane, not Sydney.

How does anyone know the ‘demand exists’? Theyre only just now ‘gathering information’ getting ready to ask for expressions of interest in airlines interested in operating. Shouldnt this have been done more than 10 months before they hope to start operating?

Maybe theyre following the AMC’s lead, declaring themselves open but not actually doing anything for a month or two until things get sorted out.

I think that China, Japan, India and where ever else international students come from will be high on the list of international flights to Canberra

dvaey said :

This news should have been acted upon for a while already. How many international airlines are capabale of setting up in under 12 months?

When Virgins ‘V Australia’ service began operating, the decision was announced in early 2006 to create the airline. By mid 2007 the company had announced its trading name, at the same time they received permission for the Australian side of their flights. In Feb 2008 they received overseas approval, and in Feb 2009 they had their first flight. If an airline such as Virgin takes nearly 3 years to setup international flights, why are they allowing less than 12 months for (several?) airlines to setup international services in Canberra?

Ideally there should have been arrangements with Virgin, Air NZ, Tiger, etc already well in-place.

Is this legit?

Big difference between setting up a whole new airline company and simply adding a destination. Really flawed thinking going on there.

There’s said to be plane loads of international passengers from Canberra already going through Sydney. So all this is seeking to do is work out new routes where those passengers can be accommodated on direct flights. All the airlines already fly to Sydney so it’s not a big fuss for them to go an extra 300km so long as the demand exists.

This news should have been acted upon for a while already. How many international airlines are capabale of setting up in under 12 months?

When Virgins ‘V Australia’ service began operating, the decision was announced in early 2006 to create the airline. By mid 2007 the company had announced its trading name, at the same time they received permission for the Australian side of their flights. In Feb 2008 they received overseas approval, and in Feb 2009 they had their first flight. If an airline such as Virgin takes nearly 3 years to setup international flights, why are they allowing less than 12 months for (several?) airlines to setup international services in Canberra?

Ideally there should have been arrangements with Virgin, Air NZ, Tiger, etc already well in-place.