Ansett Australia to fly to KL soon
Ansett Australia to fly to KL soon
SYDNEY (AFP): Ansett Australia will launch services to Kuala Lumpur three months ahead of its planned entry to the southeast Asian market under a new agreement signed with Malaysian Airlines, airline officials said yesterday.
The code-sharing (or seat-sharing) deal, which is still subject to formal government approval, will allow Australia's fledgling international carrier to offer 800 seats a week on MAS services from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney and Melbourne from August 1.
The Malaysian carrier has similar code-sharing rights on Ansett's domestic operations in Australia and New Zealand.
Ansett announced last month a planned expansion of its Asian network with flights to Taiwan and Malaysia from November, but the code-sharing arrangement allows early low-cost entry to the highly competitive South-East Asia market.
Apart from flights to the Indonesian resort island of Bali as an extension of its domestic services, Ansett already operates five services a week to Osaka in Japan and Hong Kong which it hopes to extend to a daily service.
According to plans filed with the International Air Services Commission in Canberra, it has not made a final decision regarding planned operations to Singapore, foreshadowed last year.
A copy of the plans released yesterday said Ansett believed code-sharing would be "in the greater public interest in that it would enhance the range of services available inbound and outbound."
Partnership
It would also "foster the development of tourism through the partner airline," the document said.
"Ansett will price and sell its capacity on the route independently of MAS, and will ensure that all passengers will be informed at the time of ticket reservation that the flights are operated by Ansett as joint services."
Plans by Air New Zealand to acquire a half share of Ansett worth A$550 million (US$396 million) are meantime reported to have been stalled by Australian government reluctance to give policy undertakings which could damage the upcoming Qantas share- float.
Ansett Australia is owned equally by media giant News Corp Ltd. and transport multi-national TNT Ltd., which is understood to be negotiating to sell its 50 percent stake to Air New Zealand.
However, Air New Zealand is reported to be seeking government assurances that it would subsequently be permitted to acquire 100-percent ownership of Ansett if TNT should decide some time in the future to part with Ansett.
But Canberra, which has set a 49-percent limit on overseas ownership of the national flag-carrier Qantas -- and no more than 25 percent by current shareholder British Airways -- has so far made no response to the Air New Zealand request.