In the course of the discussions, a number of practical matters were raised, some of which required further consideration.
It was accepted that the provision of low fare transport should be made available on an individually ticketed basis on the trunk route rather than through bulk wholesale arrangements.
The United Kingdom delegation raised the question of the implica- tions of the third/fourth freedom regime for possible future Concorde operations to Australia. It was agreed that this issue required further consideration and that the next step would be discussions between British Airways and Qantas.
The delegations noted the desire of the UK authorities to continue to provide end-to-end air services between the United Kingdom and New Zealand via Australia. They agreed that their accommodation within the proposed regime required examination in greater depth.
Both delegations recognised that, in respect of services between Australia and the Gulf States, it may be necessary to allow for the provision of limited carriage of sole third/fourth freedom traffic within the framework of the proposed regime. This would
be on the understanding that the modest level of such traffic would not be taken into account in the determination of capacity, which would be based upon Australia-United Kingdom third/fourth freedom traffic.
While agreeing that detailed consideration of air freight arrange- ments should be pursued later, the delegations noted that it may be economically desirable for British Airways to be able to continue carriage of freight from India to the United Kingdom on its Australia-UK services.
The UK delegation accepted the total number of frequencies and capacity proposed for the trunk route but expressed concern at ti
extent of the proposed reduction in frequency of service to CO in of the Australian gateways. The Australian delegation ri ied that it was very conscious of the need to provide ad quate coverage of all Australian international gateways. However an examination by the delegations of the detailed scheduling indicated that if higher levels of frequency were provided at some of the gateways than the Australian delegation had proposed, an element of the expected cost reduction would be lost. The Australian delegation believed that the higher frequency of service, achieved by additional stops within Australia, which the UK delegation considered preferable must be weighed carefully against the loss of benefits in terms of lower costs and reduced fares. Moreover the determination of how such differences in cost should be reflected in the various farc types would need careful assessment. It was agreed that this subject needed further consideration.
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