Ms ANDERSON - 2007-06-20
Air services remain a critical challenge for the tourism industry and Territorians wanting to travel. Can you inform the House on the progress of any aviation developments?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her question. As a Central Australian, she knows only too well how important increasing air services into the Northern Territory is. It is one of the most critical factors affecting the tourism industry and is therefore a significant priority for me as Tourism minister.
Earlier this year, I met with both Etihad Airways and Emirates in the United Arab Emirates and spoke to them about the benefits of using Darwin as an entry point into Australia as they move through to ports like Sydney and Melbourne. Etihad Airways have committed to visit the Territory later in the year and continue discussions which will, hopefully, inform their medium to long term planning as they expand their airline.
Recently, I met with senior executives from Qantas and Virgin Blue in Brisbane. Virgin Blue executives advised they are expanding their operations and indicated their desire for a long term relationship with the Northern Territory. Virgin Blue is bringing new Embraer aircraft into its fleet. They are looking to expand their networks in regional Australia, and obviously Alice Springs would be a very important part of that expansion.
To that end, I put an initiative to Virgin Blue to hold business forums in Alice Springs and Darwin later this year, where the regional tourism associations and the Chamber of Commerce will be invited, because Virgin Blue is saying that they want to have direct discussion with industry, business and communities before they make decisions about where they are going to fly because obviously they want future operations to be sustainable. They want to be able to gauge the level of community support. I have certainly written to all of those industry associations urging them to send representatives to those forums and start talking to their membership about how they could support the expansion of Virgin Blue both into Darwin and, very importantly, Alice Springs.
Obviously, Qantas is still the major airline providing services into the Northern Territory. Domestically, they provide over 90% of the market. Meeting with Qantas senior executives, they confirmed their commitment to the Territory and agreed to commit more resources into cooperative marketing activity, particularly overseas, which is a good result.
Another result of my discussions is that I have committed to convening a State of Industry Report, inviting airlines to brief industry directly in terms of their operations and what their plans are for the Northern Territory. I would like to make this an annual event and hope to have the first one in February 2008.
Qantas announced four additional services to Alice Springs from Sydney, starting on 23 June to July this year. This will deliver an extra 1280 seats into and out of Alice during the peak season. Qantas have also commenced additional daylight services between Sydney and Darwin. Hooray for an additional daylight service! I point it out to every airline that I meet. Territorians are sick of the back of the clock flights, and it is great that Qantas have put an additional daylight service on between Sydney and Darwin for June, adding some 800 seats and another 1440 seats for July.
Tiger Airways commenced a fifth weekly service from Singapore to Darwin, which is an extra 180 seats a week. That is an extra 9000 seats a year for our international tourists into and out of the Northern Territory, a real boost for the tourism industry.
Obviously, through Tourism NT, we are having continuing negotiations with Tiger in regards to their expansion as a third airline into the Australian market. We are certainly not talking about subsidies; what we are talking about is cooperative marketing in the same way that we offer cooperative marketing to Qantas and Virgin Blue.
Madam Speaker, air services into the Northern Territory are absolutely critical not only for our tourists but also our business community. We are seeing those services growing and, as Minister for Tourism, it will remain a key priority in the work that I do on behalf of our tourism industry.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her question. As a Central Australian, she knows only too well how important increasing air services into the Northern Territory is. It is one of the most critical factors affecting the tourism industry and is therefore a significant priority for me as Tourism minister.
Earlier this year, I met with both Etihad Airways and Emirates in the United Arab Emirates and spoke to them about the benefits of using Darwin as an entry point into Australia as they move through to ports like Sydney and Melbourne. Etihad Airways have committed to visit the Territory later in the year and continue discussions which will, hopefully, inform their medium to long term planning as they expand their airline.
Recently, I met with senior executives from Qantas and Virgin Blue in Brisbane. Virgin Blue executives advised they are expanding their operations and indicated their desire for a long term relationship with the Northern Territory. Virgin Blue is bringing new Embraer aircraft into its fleet. They are looking to expand their networks in regional Australia, and obviously Alice Springs would be a very important part of that expansion.
To that end, I put an initiative to Virgin Blue to hold business forums in Alice Springs and Darwin later this year, where the regional tourism associations and the Chamber of Commerce will be invited, because Virgin Blue is saying that they want to have direct discussion with industry, business and communities before they make decisions about where they are going to fly because obviously they want future operations to be sustainable. They want to be able to gauge the level of community support. I have certainly written to all of those industry associations urging them to send representatives to those forums and start talking to their membership about how they could support the expansion of Virgin Blue both into Darwin and, very importantly, Alice Springs.
Obviously, Qantas is still the major airline providing services into the Northern Territory. Domestically, they provide over 90% of the market. Meeting with Qantas senior executives, they confirmed their commitment to the Territory and agreed to commit more resources into cooperative marketing activity, particularly overseas, which is a good result.
Another result of my discussions is that I have committed to convening a State of Industry Report, inviting airlines to brief industry directly in terms of their operations and what their plans are for the Northern Territory. I would like to make this an annual event and hope to have the first one in February 2008.
Qantas announced four additional services to Alice Springs from Sydney, starting on 23 June to July this year. This will deliver an extra 1280 seats into and out of Alice during the peak season. Qantas have also commenced additional daylight services between Sydney and Darwin. Hooray for an additional daylight service! I point it out to every airline that I meet. Territorians are sick of the back of the clock flights, and it is great that Qantas have put an additional daylight service on between Sydney and Darwin for June, adding some 800 seats and another 1440 seats for July.
Tiger Airways commenced a fifth weekly service from Singapore to Darwin, which is an extra 180 seats a week. That is an extra 9000 seats a year for our international tourists into and out of the Northern Territory, a real boost for the tourism industry.
Obviously, through Tourism NT, we are having continuing negotiations with Tiger in regards to their expansion as a third airline into the Australian market. We are certainly not talking about subsidies; what we are talking about is cooperative marketing in the same way that we offer cooperative marketing to Qantas and Virgin Blue.
Madam Speaker, air services into the Northern Territory are absolutely critical not only for our tourists but also our business community. We are seeing those services growing and, as Minister for Tourism, it will remain a key priority in the work that I do on behalf of our tourism industry.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016