Source: The Australian Author: Steve Creedy 06/03/2009
Subject Concerned: Airlines Cargo
International passenger traffic to Australia took another hit in March with a 5.1 per cent drop in passenger numbers heralding the first successive monthly fall since March 2006.
The fall to 1.87 million passengers came as the number of seats increased 4.6 per cent compared with a year ago, despite moves by airlines such as Qantas to cut capacity.
The increase in seats coupled with the fall in demand pushed down average passenger loads on international flights from 76.5 per cent in March last year to 69.6 per cent in March.
The global financial crisis also saw a reshuffle in the ranking of the top airlines serving the country.
Air New Zealand moved into second spot with 9.8 per cent of the market after Singapore Airlines' share fell 1.5 percentage points to 9.5 per cent.
Qantas retained the biggest market share but it was 2.7 percentage points down on last year at 23.1 per cent.
This failed to offset a 1.7 percentage point increase in Jetstar's market share and saw the Qantas Group as a whole drop from 31.7 per cent of total passenger carriage a year ago to 30.7 per cent.
Dubai-based Emirates increased its share by 0.9 per cent to 7.8 per cent to remain ahead of Jetstar's 7.6 per cent, despite predictions by the low-cost carrier it would eclipse the Middle Eastern carrier.
The market share held by Australian-designated airlines increased from 33 per cent a year ago to 34 per cent with the launch of V Australia and a contribution from the now defunct OzJet.
Low-cost carriers also continued their advance, capturing 16 per cent of the total passenger traffic to and from Australia, up 4.9 percentage points on last year.
Overall freight traffic figures remained grim, falling 9.7 per cent over March last year to 60,842 tonnes.
Inbound freight was down 25.3 per cent but this was a slight improvement on the 25.4 per cent fall recorded in February, the biggest drop for two decades.
And there was some light in the gloom, with outbound freight rising by 16.2 per cent.
The figures came as Qantas Freight announced it would start a direct weekly Boeing 747-400 freighter service between Australia, Vietnam, China and the US.
Qantas Freight executive manager Stephen Cleary said Vietnam was one of the few countries in the region that continued to experience export growth and the new service would offer exporters in the country one of the shortest transit times to the US.
He said Qantas Freight also had the option to add a second weekly service once global air freight volumes picked up.