Qantas, Virgin to vie for Albany market

Qantas has indicated it could be ready to consider operating in competition with Virgin on the Albany air route, a move long called for by tourism operators and community leaders which would likely lead to reduced airfares.

Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA event on Tuesday, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the carrier was “eager” to provide services to “new WA towns” and called on more routes to be deregulated, including Albany.

In 2011, Skywest won exclusive rights to the Albany route for another five years after it and Qantas decided they did not want to compete.

Skywest was recently taken over by Virgin Australia, but the exclusive arrangement remains.

Qantas’ comments come in the lead-up to a major $4 million upgrade to Albany airport due to be completed by June 2014.

It will include runway improvements allowing larger Fokker 100 jet aircraft to land, instead of being limited to the smaller Fokker 50 turboprop aeroplanes.

City of Albany acting community services executive director Cameron Woods said the 100-seat jets could potentially lead to lower prices.

“The fixed costs are the same generally speaking, the fuel is not much different and wages are not much different,” he said.

“You’re putting 100 people on a plane instead of 50, and you’ve got the ability to generate more income, so hopefully that will lead to cheaper airfares.”

Australia’s South West chairman Cameron Syme agreed, saying more “bums on seats” should drive prices down.

“That would be very encouraging, because one of the strong criticisms that we hear is that air travel to Albany is so expensive,” he said.

Last year the airport’s security classification was upgraded from a band five to band four, which included the provision of X-ray screening for carry-on baggage and metal detectors.

The new project will further upgrade the security classification to band three, which will include X-ray screening for all checked baggage.

Last year the City introduced a $20 levy on every airfare sold to cover the ongoing staffing costs of the security screening services, but Mr Woods said there were no plans to introduce further charges.

Mr Woods said the project would also include improvements to the current terminal to make it more appealing to tourists.

The temporary demountable building installed last year to house security equipment would also no longer be needed when the project was complete, he said.

The tender for the terminal upgrade design and construction work was advertised by the City yesterday.

The overall $4 million project will be funded by $2.34 million in City reserves, $1.12 million State funding and $540,000 in Federal money.