Thailand to Australia would be viable. Although the Australians might
reduce Qantas services to Thailand, they would not want to give the
Thais a monopoly.
got the
10. BA are confident that traffic between London and India could be
carried on turn round services or en route to Hong Kong or Singapore.
We would not want to cut Air India's services to the UK. The total, number of services with traffic rights between India and Australia would
have to be drastically reduced. But there is little traffic on the
route (from 9 to 1 a week) and the Australians may decide to leave it in
the hands of the Indians. They will also be prepared to help the
Indians develop Australian tourism in Inida. India is likely to be
important to the Australians for technical stops.
11. Both the Australians and we agree that Indonesia is likely to be
only marginally affected. She is already concerned to confine air
traffic exchanges to the third and fourth freedoms.
1
12. The Australians took the line that while the Americans would refuse
to implement a scheme on the Pacific route, they, would have no reasons
to object to it on the UK/Australia route.
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13. The Australians intend to negotiate the same kind of agreement [ with some European countries as with us, (probably Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy and FRG), ie resticted to an exchange of end to end rights. Services would have to be reduced probably by up to 50% a week depending on the route. With others (probably France and Austria), if end to end traffic is not enough to justify a service, they
will terminate their agreements. They believe that European opposition
will not be strong enough to block the scheme.
14. At a separate meeting to consider the political effect of the Australian proposals on third countries, the Australians played down the risk that, irrespective of their separate air services/tourist
interests, the countries concerned would gang up to block the scheme by a total refusal to cooperate eg by denying overflying and landing
rights. They stressed the overriding domestic political importance of
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