Yibida Yibida...

[Blues_Brat]

..That's All Folks!

Ansett have announced that they have suspended all flights effectively immediatley.

The last flight left Perth tonight at 11:15 bound for Melbourne.

Bad news for travellers, VERY bad news for people on this side of the country who don't get Virgin Blue's competition allowing cheaper flights.

Thank you Paul Keating.. deregulation was a fantastic idea, putting people on the dole is wonderful! I guess it'll be my turn next year.. see ya on the bread line kids!

 

[GOALden Hawk]

Are Air NZ are a bunch of incompetant morons? Absolutely.

Too bad for all the people wanting to fly home for the weekend (including many of my work colleagues). Too bad for anyone who had a ticket to fly to the game in Adelaide tomorrow. Too bad for anyone with frequent flyers points. Too bad for the 17,000 employees of Ansett.

This is a major financial disaster for Australia, the long term effects on the economy may be as crippling as the tragedy in the US.

 

[Uncle Steve]

Originally posted by Blues_Brat
Thank you Paul Keating.. deregulation was a fantastic idea, putting people on the dole is wonderful! I guess it'll be my turn next year.. see ya on the bread line kids!

Deregulation was a fantastic idea. Allowing market forces of competition to bring down the prices of hyperinflated airfares was wonderful. The tightly-regulated industry worked only to grease the pockets of the airlines. Deregulation just showed how long the airlines had been ripping us off for.

The problem is that deregulation was not done properly. Services and associated costs were not thrown open to the market. For example, I heard on the radio this morning that when a plane lands in some remote WA town, there is a fire service charge of over $300. The same fee in New Zealand is $14. The Australian service is a monopoly run from Canberra, hence the massive price difference.

Listen to what **** Smith has to say; he speaks a lot of sense on this issue.