On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 15:47:52 +1000, "Tony Bailey"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
My sister-in-law recently flew Singapore Airlines from Heathrow to
Singapore then Qantas to Australia and onto NZ. I believe the
Singapore flight was a QF code share.


Doesn't happen Cath,

Thanks for that info Tony.
I was under the impression from what she said, it was a codeshare.

Went back and found the following which makes sense now and which you
are probably very aware of.

Cath

Qantas wants to lock up LA route by Scott Rochfort

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...478064455.html

September 15, 2003 Qantas is pushing the Federal Government to "ring
fence" its golden Los Angeles route from increased competition for at
least another two years as fresh talks about an open-sky agreement
between Australia and Singapore get under way next week.

Just six days after a proposed $NZ550 million ($490 million) alliance
with Air New Zealand was shot down by the competition watchdog, Qantas
is pushing for any open-sky agreement to bar Singapore Airlines flying
from Australia to the US.

Federal Transport Minister John Anderson is due to meet his Singapore
counterpart, Yeo Cheow Tong, next Monday.

Qantas public affairs manager Michael Sharp said the talks should "let
the time-frame take into consideration the crisis that we're
recovering from". Qantas has warned several times this year of
weakening demand caused by the SARS outbreak and Iraq invasion, which,
if anything, hit Singapore Airlines harder.

"It's a timing issue, not a blanket ban," Mr Sharp said, adding that
Qantas was "one of the few airlines that is having to compete [with
government-owned airlines] while delivering a return to shareholders".

With only one direct competitor to the US - the financially strapped
United - Qantas enjoyed load factors of up to 90 per cent on the route
even at the height of the SARS crisis.

Analysts estimate the Flying Kangaroo makes about one-third of its
profits from the route.

Qantas is able to tightly control capacity from the US.

The Australian Tourism Commission blamed a lack of capacity on the
route in May, June and July for a fall in tourist numbers.

Under the current air-services agreement between Singapore and
Australia, Singapore Airlines only has "through rights" to fly from
Australia to New Zealand.

Australian airlines can operate beyond Singapore to not more than two
of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines and any one
point in Japan.

Meanwhile, analysts say it could take until early next year for the
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to decide whether to
renew Qantas's eight-year-old joint-services agreement (JSA) with
major shareholder British Airways.

With Qantas and British Airways competing with another 20 airlines on
the so-called kangaroo route, Macquarie Equities analyst Ian Myles
said: "It's a highly competitive route. It's very hard to sit there
and say [the JSA] is going to be rejected."

If the JSA is renewed, British Airways and Qantas expect to save a
collective $43 million in "real terms" in the next five years.

In a joint submission to the ACCC, Qantas and British Airways said
rejection of the JSA would cut the number of foreigners carried by
Qantas and cost Australia $418 million in lost exports over five
years.

The only airline to lodge a submission against the JSA is Sir Richard
Branson's Virgin Atlantic, which says it is a barrier to entry for
European airlines hoping to fly the kangaroo route.

Talk of Virgin Atlantic commencing services to Australia has been
reignited with the UK and Hong Kong governments set to discuss their
respective air-services agreements this month.

The tough trading conditions took a toll not only on Qantas's profits
in the year to June 30 but also management pay packets. No executives
received a bonus.

The annual report said CEO Geoff Dixon was paid $1.6 million and CFO
Peter Gregg almost $1 million. ####