to keep fares down and still maintain an adequate frequency
of service to meet the on demand need at all the main
Australian cities and at the same time make a profit. The
Australians explained the great domestic political
importance attached by their Ministers to a cheap fare
policy particularly to meet the needs of the VFR (visiting
friends and relations) traffic which tends to come mostly
from the middle and lower income groups. (70% of the traffic
on the UK/Australia route originates in Australia and a
vastly higher proportion of Australians want to visit the UK
than vice versa.)
3 The Australians explained why they had rejected the other
low fare options:
(i)
the introduction of the new single coupon cheap
end to end fare now proposed without disturbing
other aspects of their air services arrangements.
This had been rejected on the grounds that, unless
the present 6th freedom operators' capacity was
reduced, neither BA nor Qantas would secure a
big enough share of the traffic available to make
viable the really cheap fare they want. The single
coupon fare would anyway prevent stopovers, and
so damage South-East Asian tourist interests.
would thus attract, without the underlying
It
rationale of the favoured alternative, the same or
nearly the same objections.
(ii) The introduction of whole plane charters of the
Laker tme.
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This had been rejected becaure it
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