News
Network Aviation becomes oneworld affiliate and Virgin-SIA alliance extended
September 30th 2016
Qantas Airways’ regional subsidiary, Network Aviation, has joined its parent as an affiliate member of the oneworld alliance. The carrier has a fleet of 17 Fokker 100s that operates from Perth to eight destinations across Western Australia. Read More » Three of them – Geraldton, Exmouth/Learmouth and Paraburdoo – will be new to the oneworld network. It also operates flights on behalf of QantasLink, joining Sunstate Airlines and Eastern Australia Airlines as alliance affiliates.
Also this week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) cleared the partnership between Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Virgin Australia for another five years, although the duo had requested a ten-year extension.
“In light of the ongoing evolution of services between Australia and the United Kingdom and Europe—and between Australia and Asia, including Virgin Australia’s proposed expansion of services into Asia, and the dynamic nature of the aviation industry—the ACCC considers it appropriate to review the authorization earlier than the requested 10 years. For this reason, the ACCC has decided to grant authorization for five years,” the ACCC ruled.
The ACCC said the Virgin-SIA tie-up has resulted in “material public benefits,” including improved frequencies, destinations, connectivity and loyalty benefits.
After HNA Group bought an initial 13% stake in Virgin in May, Australia’s second largest carrier announced it would start its long-haul flights to Asia from June 1, with two routes between Australia and Beijing and Hong Kong on its own metal.
SIA’s “Capital Express” touched down in Canberra and Wellington for the first time last Tuesday. SIA operates the four-weekly Singapore-Canberra-Wellington route using a 266-seater. “They say some of the best things in life take the longest, and this has certainly been 18 and a half years of challenges and hard work, but also a great deal of fun,” Canberra Airport CEO, Stephen Byron, told media ahead of SQ291’s arrival.
Air Niugini has told Australian Aviation it would need to reduce its services to Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns if the relevant authorities rejected an extension of their code share agreement to include Air Niugini flights to Cairns. Another point of contention is Qantas' July announcement to end its Q400 flights between Cairns and Port Moresby in lieu of a daily Brisbane B737-800 flight to the Papua New Guinea capital.
“Following the introduction of an additional seven weekly return narrowbody flights by Qantas on the Port Moresby to Brisbane route, it will not be commercially sustainable, in a shrinking market, for Air Niugini to continue to operate 13 return services weekly on that route,” Air Niugini said.
