We have told Laker in confidence of the proposals and although
we have said that we have not yet made up our minds how to respond,
we have given no grounds for optimism that the decision will
favour Laker.
AVIATION POLICY
13 There is a sharp difference between the proposals of the Australians and the more liberal line adopted by the Americans. The Australians do not think that the Americans will accept their proposals for similar arrangements on the Australia-USA route.
Americans We could come in for some criticism from the Australiens if we accepted them, even though it is no business of theirs. little or no risk of loss of traffic through diversion from
Australia-USA-UK to the direct
There is
Australia-UK route, because the
number of passengers who travel by the former is very small; they do so for their own reasons and price is not the major consideration. Any noises which the Americans make are not thought likely to have implications for bilateral UK-US air service relations.
14
BA accept the concept of the Australian proposals. They point out that the proposals are in keeping with the deliberate course which they have been following of moving towards end to end services
Low fares have been introduced without intermediate traffic stops.
on other major traffic routes, eg across the North Atlantic, and the proposed new low fares can be regarded as a logical progression. (The UK-Australia route in traffic terms is about half the size of UK-New York-500,000 one way passenger journeys, compared with
about 1 million.)
·
15 We have considered with BA the possibility that this kind of
arrangement may spread elsewhere in the world.
Having accepted it
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