credible threats
Posted by Ian Holsman
Singapore airlines is petitioning the government of australia to allow it to fly between the US and Australia, making it the 3rd carrier to do so. Having have to pay the highway robbery they call a price several times, I’m interested in seeing the outcome of this
I see Qantas are using interesting tactics.
The promise of lower prices.. This is similar to me promising to give up smoking. While I might have the best intentions now when the pressure is on, as soon as people forget I’ll be outside the office lighting up again.
$10 billion in new planes (in 3yrs) + new jobs. An Increase in capacity will put downward pressure on prices (they need bums on seats). But there is nothing saying (and no way to enforce) that they will use these new planes on that route, and that the overall number of passengers per week will change. And for all we know they might build out the planes as ‘luxury’ models keeping the prices constant and putting extra features to justify it.
The upgrades are probably going to take place anyway. For all we know, they are going to spend the money and create the jobs REGARDLESS of what the decision is.
Getting their version of ‘jetblue’ to grab the cheap seats. Personally I like this option. It will give the vactioneer a cheap way to get to their destination, but it will do nothing for the business traveller, and may infact raise the price for him as qantas now can differentiate by plane type as well.
Qantas is a public entity, not a government organisation. How does it benefit the Australian public? (not the shareholders)
So for these 5 reasons I think Singapore airlines should be allowed to fly the route, and Qantas did this to itself by charging ‘what the market will bear’ for so long. If it wasn’t trying to milk the line for so long Singapore Airlines probably wouldn’t have thought to enter the market.