Australian Competition Regulator To Monitor Domestic Air Fares

Australia's competition regulator has announced that it will closely monitor domestic air fares between metropolitan cities after local carrier Regional Express withdrew from the market last month as it entered voluntary administration. From a report: Rex is the second domestic airline to take that route this year. Low-cost airline Bonza was the first. It said in April it had suspended flights, and would assess the viability of its business. The collapse of Bonza and the withdrawal of Rex between metropolitan cities means that no domestic route had more than two competing airline groups as of July, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said.

mmmk

[drinkmorejava]

So they're going to let the fares increase to give new operators an incentive to enter...right???????

Re:

[zlives]

probably just make sure non-dom airlines are not price cutting the competition out of business.

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[AmiMoJo]

It seems that the issue that caused those two airlines collapsed was incompetence. In the case of Bonza, they didn't have a website or phone booking, just an app. Didn't appear on any of the flight comparison websites either. Their fleet was small, just 4 aircraft, and they didn't serve the most popular routes which helps other airlines cope with fluctuating demand and competition on the less popular ones.

Anyone know why Australia doesn't have high speed rail? Seems ideal for it.

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[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

Anyone know why Australia doesn't have high speed rail? Seems ideal for it.

Too many miles, not enough people.
Compare the distances and population density with France, Germany or Japan. High speed trains could only be viable between two or more of: Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. Most of those are at least 500 miles apart from each other.

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[AmiMoJo]

So it's just "sod the environment, let's just fly", basically. Not enough financial incentive to emit less CO2.

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[ChunderDownunder]

Every few years, in election mode, a politician raises the possibility of a Brisbane-Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne fast rail project. That would cover 3/4 of the population.

But it will never get built because that would require said politicians to have any long term vision on how to fund it.

Adelaide is a significant distance from anywhere and Darwin or Perth further still. People do drive from Geelong to Hobart but you have to take your car on an overnight ferry via Devonport.

Re: mmmk

[Malc]

What Australia really needs is some consumer focused laws like EU261 with well defined delay compensation rules. Aussies get such a shitty deal from their domestic airline industry. Iâ(TM)ve had a number of trips ruined by the contempt Aussie airlines show to their customers.

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[galabar]

1. Increase regulation. 2. Airline goes bankrupt. 3. Increase regulation. 4. ??? 5. Profit.

Am I The Only One

[0xG]

WHo wonders WTF is this doing in /. ?

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[rossdee]

I think there are ozzies on /.

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[mjwx]

This would be covered under the YRO part of the site.

The world does not end at US borders you know.