[thorn bird]

Shee-it boatmen,

neatly abridged description of the process, but you missed then end game.

Even after running the gambit you have described and driven yourself to distraction after seeing that
glow of light at the end of the tunnel snuff out time and again, when the approving crew get changed
with a whole new set of epiphanies of what "Compliance" entails, or an operational sticking point, where to do what's asked is an obvious no no safety wise, which you must carry responsibility and liability for. No use arguing they are the self anointed experts, you must accept their direction, then pray to the god "Murphy" for redemption.

Even if you manage to remain sane or solvent long enough to get the final tick in the box, that Damocles sword of CAsA remains gently swinging above your neck and can be lowered on a whim if CAsA so desires, "Sovereign Risk" does not apply to aviation and 100% Compliance is impossible under Australian rules.

The following article in the Australian ponders the question of Excessive airfares in Australia, some of the highest in the world. It also ponders the disappearance of air services to rural towns.

I would dearly like to find a study on the cost breakdown of running an air service. Much is made of Airport charges and there are all the other parasitic entities in the trough with them, but what everyone misses is the cost of "Compliance".

Before a wheel even turns there are massive set-up costs that must be amortised, and the ongoing costs are pretty staggering. Australian maintenance rules almost double the cost of maintaining the same aircraft here as opposed to the USA, thats if you can find an engineer these days. Just what percentage of operating cost is taken up with "Compliance"? I think we would all be shocked if we found out.

Excessive airfares a blight on regions

The World Economic Forum ranked Australia the 12th-most expensive in which to fly, out of 136 countries. 



EAN HIGGINS 

NATIONAL RURAL REPORTER


 


12:00AM JUNE 10, 2019



Airfares to regional Australia are among the highest in the world, and airlines and airports should be compelled to open their books to prove passengers are not being ripped off, a report has found.

The Senate report also found the high cost of regional flying had “a direct and detrimental effec­t on the lived experience of residents of these areas”.

The report reveals that while the government is planning to make more country airports introduce security screening, it has not done any analysis of what this would cost, and says such a study should be done with urgency.

One crossbench senator who participated in the inquiry, South Australia’s Rex Patrick, noted airlines­ had warned that routes to half the regional airports targeted for screening could become finan­cially unviable if the airports had to pay the ongoing labour and equipment costs of up to $1 million, and passed it on to airlines in airport charges.

Senator Patrick, of the Centre Alliance, said the government had blundered in failing to table legislation to extend the screening to more regional airports.

“That also means that the depart­ment never presented that cost to cabinet,” Senator Patrick told The Australian. He intends to put forward a disallowance motion­ to stop the legislation in a bid to force further consideration, and for the government to agree to fund the cost of the proposed extended passenger screening as a national security measure.

The Senate committee report has found many regional Australian airfares are astronomical.

“Despite the volume of passengers in the Australian aviation market, and the importance of commercial air travel in connecting Australians from rural and remote areas to essential services, Australia remains one of the most expensive countries in which to fly,” the report says.

The World Economic Forum ranked Australia the 12th-most expensive in which to fly, out of 136 countries. A study found the cost was $US29.39 per 100km, compared with Malaysia, the cheapest country in which to fly, where it cost $US4.18 per 100km.

“A lack of access to affordable airfares reduces the opportunities for residents to, among other things, attend family events, medical appointments, sporting events or explore and develop business opportunities,” the Senat­e committee report says.

It recommends that the govern­ment ask the Productivity Commission to use its powers to compel parties to provide financial data in “a standalone, public inquiry into the determinants of domestic airfares on routes to and between regional centres”.

The report highlights graphic examples of regional airfares so high that residents are forced to drive thousands of kilometres.

Hamish Griffin, a resident of Cloncurry, Queensland, told the inquiry for him to fly with his wife and son the 800km to Townsville would cost nearly $4800 return.

A doctor in Mount Gambier, South Australia, Richard Try, told the committee intermittent and costly air services meant specialists were less likely to travel there, and observed that a five- to six-hour car journey for ill patients could be onerous.

In one instance, because a flight was cancelled, a patient was forced to drive to Adelaide at 4am with what later turned out to be an undiagnosed life-threatening condition.

The report said the arguments between regional airports and airlines over which was responsible for high airfares was irresolvable, with airlines accusing some airports­ of monopolistic opportunism in their pricing, and airports denying it.

The committee accepted there were many inherent reasons why cost pressures were high in region­al air travel, including smaller economies of scale.

It said it “could not form the view that there was ‘price gouging’ or other market manipulation taking place by airlines operating in regional areas”.