Australian inbound tour operators back Qantas-Air NZ deal

By NZPA

Thursday 28th November 2002

Australia's inbound tour operators today gave their strong support to the planned alliance between Qantas and Air New Zealand.

In Australia, the proposal for Qantas to buy a 22.5 percent stake in its one-time rival has failed the attract the same level of opposition as in New Zealand, and the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) is among those backing it.

Council chairman Andrew Burnes said the deal would enhance not only trans-Tasman tourism, but also tourism in the Pacific region.

He said the Australian industry and Australian travellers in general had benefited from having a strong national carrier in the aftermath of September 11 and Ansett's collapse last year.

Qantas was one of the few major airlines in the world to increase profits in the last financial year, when it saw its domestic rivals reduce in number from three to just one, budget carrier Virgin Blue.

"This alliance will further strengthen both Qantas and Air NZ's ability to respond to and ride out what will undoubtedly be a bumpy road ahead over the next couple of years," Mr Burnes said.

"All the evidence so far would suggest that a link with Air NZ could only benefit both carriers significantly and the entire Australia-Pacific travel and tourism industry."

ATEC managing director Peter Shelley called for parochialism to be put aside and said there was widespread support without the council's membership for the deal to proceed.

"Australia and New Zealand share a large number of mutually beneficial partnerships that deliver better synergies and economies of scale as we try to compete with the huge global economies of America, Europe and Asia," he said.

"This alliance makes sense economically, strategically and in terms of serving the national interests of both Australia and New Zealand."

Mr Shelley pointed to the joint Australian-New Zealand trade mission to ITB, the world's largest travel fair, in Berlin earlier this year as a sign of the growing strategic partnership between the two tourism industries.

Meanwhile, Sydney's Daily Telegraph today printed the results of a telephone poll it ran on whether the Qantas-Air NZ alliance should get regulatory approval.

The figures showed that only 94 people bothered to ring in to give a view, but that 70 of them (74 percent) believed that it should.

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