02-05-2018, 04:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2018, 05:19 PM by thorn bird.)
Increasingly it would seem "Joe Punter" is becoming aware he is being screwed by ever increasing rises in the price he pays for a ticket to and from "Kickatinalong".
Cant really blame him, for lashing out at what he sees as the offending party.
To some extent I guess his wrath is aimed in the right direction, the airline operators do gouge. Tickets that can be 60 bucks one day and 700 the next for a one way fare for the same journey can be difficult to explain and even more difficult for the average punter to understand But airlines are in the business to make profit for their shareholders one can hardly blame them for when demand and lack of capacity leaves them in a position to make hay while the sun shines. They need to to stay in front of the ever increasing tranche of regulations being churned out by the aviation regulator.
Added to that, the maw of all the support services and general parasitic industries that have grown up to feed off the carcass of aviation.
I saw once an airline actually broke down their fares to apportion the cost of the ticket and reflect the true costs of providing an aviation service. I understand the government very quickly stepped in to shut that down, the political fallout was too severe for Joe public to be shown the truth. The actual costs for the airline providing a crewed aircraft on the ramp ready to go was a very minor part of the overall cost when all the hanger ons had been paid.
I believe Joe Public would be very interested to know how much of the ticket price goes to Comply with Australia's unique, home grown mass of regulatory gobbledegook.
How much of the ticket price is taken up by Australia's unique completely incompatible maintenance regulations.(I know of one operator who ferries their aircraft to America for heavy maintenance because it costs half what it costs in Australia and they do a better job).
The costs of so called security, terminal charges, landing fees paid to dodgy banks who saw the value of a monopoly.
A Monopoly created by a government that could see no value in public infrastructure even though it returned dividend to government which could be used to build better infrastructure.
The big dodgy banks could see a money tree when it was waved at them, borrowing vast sums of money to purchase assets the public owned debt free. Once paid, that money disappeared into the Maw of consolidated revenue, never to be seen again.
The the big dodgy bank, with a bit of creative accounting, in reality actually loaned the money to themselves, creating a massive debt that previously didn't exist, then charged every user of the asset huge fees to service that debt which could never truely be serviced, thus a profit could never be obtained, and the whole Ponzi scheme with massive turnover would never pay tax.
The losers of course were Joe public who lost an asset they owned, debt free, now saddled with paying the interest on loans that they didn't take out and the big Dodgy bank won a money tree. Best of all they didn't have to spend a penny improving the asset, accept on stuff that maximised their returns. As someone said "What a nice little earner."
Anyway a snippet from Rural Queensland.
The North West Star
February 2 2018 – 10:01AM
High priced airfares affecting Mount Isa’s economy
Melissa North
INFLATED PRICES: Mount Isa City Council is demanding a better deal from airlines and Government to help stimulate the region’s economy. Photo: Supplied
INFLATED PRICES: Mount Isa City Council is demanding a better deal from airlines and Government to help stimulate the region’s economy. Photo: Supplied
Mount Isa City Council is demanding a better deal from airlines and governments to help stimulate the region’s economy and make air travel more affordable for local families.
Mayor Joyce McCulloch said high priced air travel was holding back efforts to attract new jobs and investment to Mount Isa and isolating those who chose to live and work in the city.
“Our economy is worth $1 billion annually to the state and federal treasuries and yet grandparents can’t afford to visit their grandkids, and families can’t afford holidays without first driving 900km to Townsville,” Cr McCulloch said.
Council said it had prepared a detailed submission to the Senate inquiry investigating the operation, regulation and funding of air services to rural, regional and remote communities.
The submission follows a Mount Isa City Council motion at the Australian Local Government Association annual conference in Canberra in June 2017 calling for the federal government “to ensure the cost of airfares and transport in remote and rural areas provides economic and affordable access to all residents.”
Cr McCulloch said the excessive cost of air travel for Mount Isa residents and visitors was unjust and out of step with government objectives to develop northern Australia and grow regional economies.
“How can the Australian Government talk up the development of northern Australia when airfares out of Mount Isa are three times the cost of flights from metropolitan centres?” she said.
“It’s cheaper to fly internationally than it is from Mount Isa to Brisbane.”
Cr McCulloch said Qantas and other airlines profited from people’s stress and grief in emergencies, charging huge sums for people who booked late while the planes themselves were not optimal.
“Qantas aircraft used on the Mount Isa routes are often ageing and unreliable, and onboard food and entertainment can be rare luxuries,” she said.
The council’s recommendations are grouped around five themes: airfare parity, price monitoring, cost reductions, competition enhancements and subsidies.
They called on “governments and industry” to:
Act to ensure airfares in regional; and remote Queensland are comparable in price to air services between the major metropolitan centres in Australia and along coastal Queensland
Remove excise taxed on aviation fuel used by regional and remote airlines and exempting regional airlines from paying Airservices Australia charges
Direct the ACCC to monitor prices at Australia’s regional airports and to approve the prices at the major airports for regional air services
Allow overseas airlines to operate in regional Australia
Establish an ongoing, formalised program of cooperation between Government and regional airlines to identify further opportunities to reduce airline operating costs.
Cr McCulloch said they also called on the Queensland government to expand its financial support for aviation in regional parts of the state.
“The Queensland government’s per capita expenditure on public transport in regional and remote Queensland should at least match their per capita expenditure in south-east Queensland,” she said.
“This is about a fair go for regional Queensland, plain and simple, and we welcome this opportunity to make our voices heard.”
Cant really blame him, for lashing out at what he sees as the offending party.
To some extent I guess his wrath is aimed in the right direction, the airline operators do gouge. Tickets that can be 60 bucks one day and 700 the next for a one way fare for the same journey can be difficult to explain and even more difficult for the average punter to understand But airlines are in the business to make profit for their shareholders one can hardly blame them for when demand and lack of capacity leaves them in a position to make hay while the sun shines. They need to to stay in front of the ever increasing tranche of regulations being churned out by the aviation regulator.
Added to that, the maw of all the support services and general parasitic industries that have grown up to feed off the carcass of aviation.
I saw once an airline actually broke down their fares to apportion the cost of the ticket and reflect the true costs of providing an aviation service. I understand the government very quickly stepped in to shut that down, the political fallout was too severe for Joe public to be shown the truth. The actual costs for the airline providing a crewed aircraft on the ramp ready to go was a very minor part of the overall cost when all the hanger ons had been paid.
I believe Joe Public would be very interested to know how much of the ticket price goes to Comply with Australia's unique, home grown mass of regulatory gobbledegook.
How much of the ticket price is taken up by Australia's unique completely incompatible maintenance regulations.(I know of one operator who ferries their aircraft to America for heavy maintenance because it costs half what it costs in Australia and they do a better job).
The costs of so called security, terminal charges, landing fees paid to dodgy banks who saw the value of a monopoly.
A Monopoly created by a government that could see no value in public infrastructure even though it returned dividend to government which could be used to build better infrastructure.
The big dodgy banks could see a money tree when it was waved at them, borrowing vast sums of money to purchase assets the public owned debt free. Once paid, that money disappeared into the Maw of consolidated revenue, never to be seen again.
The the big dodgy bank, with a bit of creative accounting, in reality actually loaned the money to themselves, creating a massive debt that previously didn't exist, then charged every user of the asset huge fees to service that debt which could never truely be serviced, thus a profit could never be obtained, and the whole Ponzi scheme with massive turnover would never pay tax.
The losers of course were Joe public who lost an asset they owned, debt free, now saddled with paying the interest on loans that they didn't take out and the big Dodgy bank won a money tree. Best of all they didn't have to spend a penny improving the asset, accept on stuff that maximised their returns. As someone said "What a nice little earner."
Anyway a snippet from Rural Queensland.
The North West Star
February 2 2018 – 10:01AM
High priced airfares affecting Mount Isa’s economy
Melissa North
INFLATED PRICES: Mount Isa City Council is demanding a better deal from airlines and Government to help stimulate the region’s economy. Photo: Supplied
INFLATED PRICES: Mount Isa City Council is demanding a better deal from airlines and Government to help stimulate the region’s economy. Photo: Supplied
Mount Isa City Council is demanding a better deal from airlines and governments to help stimulate the region’s economy and make air travel more affordable for local families.
Mayor Joyce McCulloch said high priced air travel was holding back efforts to attract new jobs and investment to Mount Isa and isolating those who chose to live and work in the city.
“Our economy is worth $1 billion annually to the state and federal treasuries and yet grandparents can’t afford to visit their grandkids, and families can’t afford holidays without first driving 900km to Townsville,” Cr McCulloch said.
Council said it had prepared a detailed submission to the Senate inquiry investigating the operation, regulation and funding of air services to rural, regional and remote communities.
The submission follows a Mount Isa City Council motion at the Australian Local Government Association annual conference in Canberra in June 2017 calling for the federal government “to ensure the cost of airfares and transport in remote and rural areas provides economic and affordable access to all residents.”
Cr McCulloch said the excessive cost of air travel for Mount Isa residents and visitors was unjust and out of step with government objectives to develop northern Australia and grow regional economies.
“How can the Australian Government talk up the development of northern Australia when airfares out of Mount Isa are three times the cost of flights from metropolitan centres?” she said.
“It’s cheaper to fly internationally than it is from Mount Isa to Brisbane.”
Cr McCulloch said Qantas and other airlines profited from people’s stress and grief in emergencies, charging huge sums for people who booked late while the planes themselves were not optimal.
“Qantas aircraft used on the Mount Isa routes are often ageing and unreliable, and onboard food and entertainment can be rare luxuries,” she said.
The council’s recommendations are grouped around five themes: airfare parity, price monitoring, cost reductions, competition enhancements and subsidies.
They called on “governments and industry” to:
Act to ensure airfares in regional; and remote Queensland are comparable in price to air services between the major metropolitan centres in Australia and along coastal Queensland
Remove excise taxed on aviation fuel used by regional and remote airlines and exempting regional airlines from paying Airservices Australia charges
Direct the ACCC to monitor prices at Australia’s regional airports and to approve the prices at the major airports for regional air services
Allow overseas airlines to operate in regional Australia
Establish an ongoing, formalised program of cooperation between Government and regional airlines to identify further opportunities to reduce airline operating costs.
Cr McCulloch said they also called on the Queensland government to expand its financial support for aviation in regional parts of the state.
“The Queensland government’s per capita expenditure on public transport in regional and remote Queensland should at least match their per capita expenditure in south-east Queensland,” she said.
“This is about a fair go for regional Queensland, plain and simple, and we welcome this opportunity to make our voices heard.”