stops per flight permitted in Australia, which BA insist should
be more than the single point proposed by the Australians;
revenue pooling between BA and Qantas; the implications of a
third/fourth freedom regime for possible future Concorde
operations to Australia; the possibility of accommodating end
to end services between UK and New Zealand via Australia within
the proposed regime, which the Australians are not very keen
on, because it goes against the concept of their proposals.
3.
We were in touch with Laker Airways all through the talks.
and they submitted modified proposals. The Australians
The
continued their opposition to the introduction of charter
services, on the basis that these would cream off the low
fare traffic from the two main centres of Sydney and Melbourne.
4. Hong Kong Government and CPA were invited to join in
towards the end of the negotiations. Their preliminary views
were as follows. Hong Kong's loss of tourist income from
stopovers en route London-Australia would not be significant
and any such loss would be more than offset by the increase
of tourist revenue flowing from cheaper fares, which both
the Hong Kong Government and CPA were much in favour of.
East Australia-Hong Kong route would not be much affected by
the proposals though there could be problems over reduced
frequency.. CPA thought that the Australian proposals might
make their West Austalia service unviable. Their principal
concern, however, wassthe risk of other countries following
the Australian precedent and withdrawing fifth freedom rights.
This could affect CPA very severely because nearly half their
revenue comes from fifth freedom traffic. The Hong Kong
Government and CPA are now to examine the implications of the
proposals in greater depth.
5. The Australians throughout stressed the domestic
political importance they attached to achieving cheap fares. They took the line that the proposals presented are the best
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