Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson: Australia is unable to sustain more than three airlines

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson: Australia is unable to sustain more than three airlines
Sofia Geraghty
By Sofia Geraghty


Following the collapse of budget airline Bonza, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson has said the aviation market in Australia is not set up to sustain more than three airlines.

Speaking at the launch of the airline’s new 17-hour flight from Perth to Paris, Hudson said the Australian aviation industry was different from other Western markets because of its low population and reliance on domestic travel.

“If you think about why three airlines really struggle, it’s a number of things – our population; the US has 250 million people, we have 26 million and spread between the economics of being a viable airline, it’s incredibly challenging because it’s capital intensive,” Hudson told Nine Newspapers.

She also said that the fall of Bonza highlights why the government needs to focus on the sustainability of the market.

Bonza creditors vote to liquidate embattled low-cost carrier

“We are an island nation, our economy relies on domestic aviation and the role that we play as a national carrier. We want our airlines, and Virgin and Rex, we want them to be sustainable, and to be sustainable they’ve got to be making a certain amount of revenue to invest. We don’t want a weak aviation market,” she said.

The comments come at a time when the government is due to reveal its long-awaited aviation white paper which will set the policy for the industry up until 2050.

The new direct flights between Perth and Paris mark the return of the Flying Kangaroo operating services to the City of Light for the first time in 20 years.

The route cuts about three hours off the current fastest travel time between the two cities and is the longest non-stop flight to France from anywhere in the world.

Flights will initially operate four times per week over the busy European summer and Olympic and Paralympics before moving to three services per week from mid-August. The new route will add an additional 75,000 seats between Australia and Europe each year.

The flight is part of the airline’s Project Sunrise – an initiative to introduce more long-haul flights that will better connect Australia with the rest of the world.

The project includes what it describes as the “final frontier of aviation” – direct flights from the east coast of Australia to Europe and the US.

Feature image: Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson. Supplied by Qantas 

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