Pacific Beat
Sky
Wars
Qantas Shot Down in New Zealand's Unfriendly Skies
Showing the bravado of fighter pilots and the coyness of diplomats,
the commanders of the region's leading airlines are battling
for market supremacy-and possibly for long-term survival.
With expansion on their minds, Qantas and Singapore Airlines
are circling an ailing Air New Zealand and its capital-starved
subsidiary Ansett, hoping to impress investors and trying
to sweet-talk the political air-traffic controllers in Canberra
and Wellington.
On June
14 a new craft hit radar screens. Arguing that Qantas and
Air New Zealand had "very similar cultural values" and that
a partnership "will give us some critical mass," Qantas ceo
Geoff Dixon proposed that the Flying Kangaroo acquire a 25-49%
stake in the Kiwi airline, while Singapore Airlines could
take control of Ansett.
It's not
clear how the deal was born: was it a ploy by bankers, a bureaucratic
bungle or a competitor's trick? In any case, it looks as if
Qantas underestimated both the soaring ambition of Singapore
Airlines (a fledging regional airline in the '60s, it is now
among the world's leading carriers) and New Zealand's ingrained
distaste for Australian brashness. "The idea of New Zealand's
national carrier being owned by Australia doesn't impress
me," declared New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton.
So much for closer economic relations. Last week, Air New
Zealand's board announced that it preferred a Singapore Airlines
rescue plan under which the Asian giant would increase its
25% stake in Air New Zealand and give Ansett a life-saving
injection of up to $A4 billion to upgrade its fleet.
As Qantas'
share price tumbled in the wake of the Kiwi snub, a belligerent
Dixon said Singapore Airlines was showing "imperialistic tendencies"
and warned that its move on Air New Zealand was an attempt
"to take an unprecedented level of influence over the competitiveness
and structure of the aviation industry on both sides of the
Tasman." Qantas also wondered aloud why it had been invited
to pitch in the first place. "Singapore Airlines could have
done this deal and we would never have known about it," a
spokesman for the airline told Time. "Yet we were given the
opportunity to be in the tent on this transaction. Our proposal
is still on the table and we will continue to argue its merits."
While few
observers think Qantas will carry the day, Singapore Airlines
must still persuade both Canberra and Wellington to lift their
25% caps on foreign stakes in national carriers. Last Friday,
Singapore Airlines chief Cheong Choong Kong emphasized the
parlous state of Ansett when he met with Australian Prime
Minister John Howard, who faces an election this year. Without
Singapore's cash, the 13,000 mainly Australian jobs of the
weakest link in regional aviation could be under threat.
Qantas's
argument that the rise of a Singapore-owned superairline would
ultimately hurt Australia's interests has support within Howard's
government. His Kiwi counterpart, Helen Clark, is also in
for a rough ride. Over the coming weeks, Clark's government
will decide the fate of New Zealand's flag carrier, what domestic
investors will salvage from their holdings in it, and how
far the small nation can stretch the friendship with its closest
ally and most important economic partner. Fasten your safety
belts.
-By Tom
Dusevic. With reporting by Daniel Williams/Sydney
Trouble
on four legs
Dingo
Dilemma
Since baby Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from a camp site
at Uluru, in Central Australia, in 1980, many Australians
have regarded dingoes as a public menace. That view was strengthened
in April, when a group of the wild dogs mauled 9-year-old
Clinton Gage to death at a camping ground on Fraser Island,
off the southern Queensland coast.
The dimensions
of the nature reserve's dingo menace became clearer last week,
when state Environment Minister Dean Wells presented a report
on the problem to the Queensland Parliament. It found that
humans were at extreme or high risk from dingo attacks at
eight Fraser Island campsites; there are an average of 46
dingo attacks on visitors to the island each year. Proposed
control measures include increasing fines for feeding dingoes,
restricting the length of visits, fencing off camp grounds
and "hazing," or scaring the animals away with rifles, slingshots
or paintball guns. Since Clinton's death, 31 of the island's
estimated 200 dingoes have been culled despite protests from
environmentalists and some Aboriginal groups; rangers have
standing orders to kill any dingoes that act aggressively.
-By Leora
Moldofsky
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