of traffic and the likely amount of new traffic which would be generated by lower air fares. The only points which fully satisfy these criteria are Frankfurt and Rome. However the Australians have not overlooked the domestic
Athens political significance of two "marginal" markets: and Belgrade because of Greek and Jugoslav immigrants. Traffic to and from Belgrade could probably justify one end-to-end service for each airline per week and that to and from Athens one by Qantas alone. Services between
It is Australia and the Netherlands are in the balance. possible that the Australians might decide that the current and likely future levels of end to end traffic do not justify the continuation of end to end services. The Dutch have caught wind of this, and have already stated that they do not
The think that curtailment of services would be justified. Australians are still considering this problem. Australians propose to discontinue all services between Paris and Australia and between Austria and Australia.
The
8 The European countries most affected are likely to complain but the Australians will have to bear the brunt of that. Some of them, notably the Dutch, whose airlines have poached some of the UK/Australia traffic by linking back to back services will be excluded from legitimately using the new UK-Australia low fare and on past experience will mutter complaints about this. But we do not regard that as serious. 9 If the Australian proposals are implemented, the weekly pattern of services between Australia and Europe might be as set out below (this can only be a rough estimate). Although the frequency of services will be reduced, the number of passengers carried may well increase as a result of cheaper air fares.
Qantas
European Carrier
Total
Change on present No
Amsterdam
not yet'decided
•
Athens
1
Belgrade
Frankfurt
Rome
1
London
∞ ~ WJ J
0
1
-3
1 (JAT)
2
-1
3
3 (Lufthansa) 6
-1
2
2 (Alitalia)
4
-2
8
8 (BA)
16
-4