World Cup goals elusive as Qantas bookings fall short

MATT O'SULLIVAN
June 30, 2010

QANTAS has conceded that the World Cup has failed to deliver the boost in passengers it was expecting on flights between South Africa and Australia.

The airline made the admission in its application to the International Air Services Commission for a two-year extension of its code-share agreement with South African Airways on the route.

The commission came close to denying a similar request from Qantas in 2008, admitting that it would have blocked it had Virgin Blue not signalled at the time that it planned to fly to South Africa.
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In its latest request, Qantas said it had hoped the World Cup would provide a ''short-term demand injection'' during an otherwise flat period but the level of bookings had been ''disappointing''.

Tourism South Africa initially expected 450,000 visitors for the World Cup but the actual number is closer to 250,000.

The commission has repeatedly raised concerns over the years about ''limited competition'' and ''continuing high fares'' on the route dominated by Qantas and SAA.

But Qantas has highlighted in its application the impact that Virgin Blue's long-haul carrier, V Australia, has had on boosting competition since beginning services between Melbourne and Johannesburg early this year.

It lauded V Australia as an ''effective and vigorous competitor'', having achieved a ''respectable market share'' of 15 per cent in its first month of operations in April. That had the effect of lowering Qantas and SAA's combined market share to 68 per cent from 75 per cent in 2009.

Last year, visitor arrivals from South Africa fell by 12 per cent, after increasing substantially each year since 2004.

Source: The Age

http://www.watoday.com.au/business/world-cup-goals-elusive-as-qantas-bookings-fall-short-20100629-zjb1.html