SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia will seek talks with Singapore after
the city state took the unusual step of publicly rebuking Canberra
for maintaining a trans-Pacific ban on Singapore Airlines.
While the main beneficiary of the decision, Qantas Airways,
labelled objections to the ban "a joke", Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer said Wednesday his government wanted to explain a decision
that has left officials in the city-state fuming.
"We look forward to sitting down with the Singapore government at
the officals level fairly soon to talk about this issue," Downer
told reporters.
"There are things they want from Australia, there are things we
want from Singapore and we'll sit down and have a good talk about
those things in an appropriate and a private setting."
His comments came after Singapore went public with its displeasure
at Tuesday's decision to maintain a ban on SIA flying the lucrative
Australia-US route dominated by Qantas, the latest twist in talks
stretching back more than a decade.
In an unusually blunt statement, Singapore accused Australia of
taking its generosity and warmth in bilateral relations for
granted.
"Singapore has also been more than generous in facilitating the
growth of Australian carriers to and beyond Singapore. It is
disheartening to see that they have taken this and the warmth in
our bilateral relationship for granted," Transport Minister Yeo
Cheow Tong said.
Yeo's department said Singapore "has more than fulfilled its
commitment to Australia" with a liberal aviation policy that
allowed Qantas to grow its operations in the city-state to a size
second only to the airline's home base.
But in remarks unlikely to ease tensions between Canberra and
Singapore, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said many objections
to Canberra's decision were "ill-founded.
"Protection is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?" he told
public radio.
"And Singapore, for them to be taking about protection as a
government-owned carrier with routes like they've got to Kuala
Lumpur out of Singapore or to places like Jakarta, I find it a
joke."
Dixon described Qantas as "the least protected airline in the
world," saying it had been prevented from expanding services to
destinations such as Britain and France because of the government
decisions that dominate the industry.
"We live in a bilateral world, this is not just pure economic
rationalism in the airline industry, all of this is played by the
rules," he said.
Qantas earns as much as 20 percent of its profits from its
Sydney-Los Angeles services, with US-based United Airlines the only
other carrier flying the route.
It has long argued it would be disadvantaged if state-backed
airlines such as SIA were allowed in while Transport Minister
Warren Truss said access would only be granted if it was in the
national interest.
"If access is negotiated in the future, it'll be limited and it'll
be phased and we certainly wouldn't expect Singapore Airlines to be
operating on the route for some years," Truss said Tuesday when
announcing the decision.
Singapore said the decision was inconsistent with the many signals
from Australian leaders in past rounds of discussions that the
issue would be resolved within a reasonable timeframe.
"I have always held Australia in high regard as a close bilateral
partner. Thus, I am naturally very disappointed with this decision,
especially after more than 10 years of protracted discussions,"
Minister Yeo said.
Apparently heading off another possible line of attack, Australian
Treasurer Peter Costello said the decision was totally unconnected
to Singapore's hanging in December of convicted Australian drug
trafficker Nguyen Van Truong.
"We do not link the death policy to aviation policy," he told
reporters.
Costello said the decision was aimed at allowing Australian
discount carrier Virgin Blue onto the route and if the airline
failed to take up the option within the next few years, then it
would be reviewed.
Taken from:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060222/bs_afp/singaporeairlineaustraliaqantassia;_ylt=AtgPEJbJcK.toVZz9ohvLJBvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--