Gold Coast ferry service: All aboard by Christmas as council backs trial Ferries will soon take to the water on the Gold Coast after a decision taken at council today provided a huge boost to the project. Paul Weston, Gold Coast Bulletin May 30, 2019 12:47pm THE Gold Coast will have a ferry service being trialled before Christmas after councillors today backed funding to improve some of the waterway access points. Councillors at a closed session today viewed the results of an expression of interest evaluation which recommended SW Cruise Co Pty Ltd deliver the two-year trial. The transport and infrastructure committee later backed a $1 million spend on delivering the necessary disability access and facilities needed at ferry stops. How the ferry stop at HOTA is expected to look. Councillors at the meeting also approved $500,000 in operational funding in 201920 for “necessary management activities” along with community consultation. Another $500,000 is allocated for the following 12 months. The current report on the trial remains confidential but parts are to be released, and a further report will be provided for the committee. Outside the council chamber, Mayor Tom Tate was buoyant about the prospects for one of his pet projects. “Lock the date in – December,” he said, when asked about the start of the trial. He said the EOI was closed and it had led to a “very good result” for council. “I’m very confident the trial will begin before December so we get the Christmas trade. Our attitude is the quality that has been selected, and the five locations (for docking stations) are the highest density,” he said. Mayor Tom Tate - lock in the date. Picture:Glenn Hampson. “I think it will be popular among locals and tourists alike. As the trial gets going we will look at modifying the speed, if we can do it quicker it’s better for everybody but safety is first.” He said the Coast-based company running the ferry trial would use public terminals. “I now want to accelerate the ferry terminal at HOTA,” Cr Tate said.
He cautioned that council would not be subsidising the service but working with the State Government to upgrade infrastructure with a 50-50 split on a jetty at Doug Jennings Park. “If you look at 10 years from now I can see this is be another mode of transport that people will get to and from work like catching a bus. Kids going to school,” Cr Tate said. “I can see Runaway Bay people will have a ferry service — they need to get to Southport, why drive.” The ferry service will run to The Spit. Picture: AAP An earlier council report predicted the ferry service patronage would be 400 to 700 passengers daily. With proper marketing, it could reach between 1000 to 1800. Speed limits in the Broadwater and on the Nerang River would be unchanged. Council officers recommend five stops: Sea World, Southport Pier, Marina Mirage, Appel Park at Surfers Paradise and HOTA.
Federal Court fines Jetstar $2m over misleading refund claims News.com.au 31 May 2019
The Federal Court has ordered Jetstar to pay up after it admitted it wrongly told passengers not all super-cheap fares were refundable. MAY 30, 20194:17PM
Jetstar has been ordered to pay almost $2 million in penalties for misleading passengers about their rights to refunds on cheap fares. The budget airline, owned by Qantas, has admitted it wrongly told passengers some fares were not refundable and refunds were only available to passengers who bought more expensive fares. But under Australian consumer law, passengers whose flights are cancelled or significantly delayed due to reasons within the airline’s control are entitled to refunds. The Federal Court has fined Jetstar $1.95 million in penalties over the claims, which were made on its website between April 2017 and March 2018. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched legal proceedings against Jetstar over the claims in December. “Jetstar’s representations were false or misleading because all flights come with automatic consumer guarantees that cannot be excluded, restricted or modified, no matter how cheap the fare,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said. “If a flight is cancelled or significantly delayed, passengers may be entitled to a refund under the consumer guarantees. All consumers have the right to a remedy, such as a refund, if services are not supplied within a reasonable time. “Businesses simply cannot make blanket ‘no refunds’ statements because they can mislead consumers into thinking they can never get a refund under any circumstances.”
Jetstar previously said it had updated the terms and conditions on its website to be clearer about passengers’ refund rights in light of an ACCC crackdown on Australia’s four major airlines and their refund policies. It said it made changes to wording and added information about consumers’ legal rights when flights were delayed and cancelled. Jetstar, Qantas, Virgin Australia and Tigerair Australia have said they will ensure their policies and practices comply with consumer law. A Jetstar spokesperson said in a statement: “We take our obligations under Australian Consumer Law seriously and it was never our intention to mislead customers about the circumstances in which they could claim refunds. “We worked closely with the ACCC during its review and in July last year made changes to our website and our conditions of carriage, to make sure it’s clear when customers are eligible for a refund.”
‘Astute’ Aussies pose a challenge THE AUSTRALIAN 12:00AM MAY 31, 2019 American Airlines may only carry a fraction of the Australian international market but in the US it’s a different matter. With more than 1 million Australians visiting the US each year, as many as 75 per cent are thought to take at least one domestic flight with American carrying a large proportion of those. The high number of Australian passengers presents some challenges to the airline which is awaiting a decision on a joint business venture with Qantas. Visiting Sydney last week, American’s Asia Pacific managing director Russ Fortson said Australians tended to be among the most “astute” passengers with regards to product and service. “That’s largely because of Qantas,” Mr Fortson says. “Qantas is a world-leading airline and Australian consumers have become accustomed to the latest and greatest whether it be seats or in-flight entertainment or the airport experience because Qantas has made very great advances and innovation with the Q-bag tags and so on.” He says those standards forced some changes by American Airlines to its own product when the two airlines began codesharing across the Pacific in late 2015. “Qantas as you know offers pyjamas in business class so we had to do that as well because that’s what passengers expect,” Mr Fortson said. “We’ve also learned that Australian customers want to have a nice glass of wine with their meal so we’ve upgraded the wine list.” How astute Australian travellers will react when American Airlines reintroduces the Boeing 737 MAX 8 to its domestic fleet is not something Mr Fortson is keen to talk about. The US carrier has taken the 24 aircraft out of its schedule until August 19 in anticipation the global grounding of the 737 MAX will be lifted by then. “As we’ve previously stated, we’re not going to fly the aeroplane if it’s not safe and until our pilots feel it’s safe to fly and it’s certified to fly,” he says.
“We’ve cancelled all the flying of the MAX till the middle of August and the reason we’ve done that is so customers are not inconvenienced by last-minute cancellations.” Mr Fortson stresses that the 737 MAX is not operated on any services to Australia, nor are there any plans to do so. Originally flown by B777s, American now operates 787-9s on the LA-Sydney route.
Downturn a drag for passengers • •
THE AUSTRALIAN 12:00AM MAY 31, 2019 Domestic air travellers in Australia are feeling the fallout from an extended lull in the market, with flights becoming more crowded and more expensive, and on ageing aircraft. That’s the observation of S&P Global Ratings’ lead analyst Graeme Ferguson, who said strict capacity management had helped Qantas and Virgin Australia manage the “spluttering domestic market” and allowed both carriers to raise prices. But he said there was only so much that capacity management could achieve. “Airlines are a good bellwether of domestic market conditions and we saw a sharp slowdown in bookings pre-election,” Mr Ferguson said. “In response, Qantas reduced capacity and Virgin quickly followed. It remains to be seen to what extent a post-election bounce is able to shake passengers out of their current malaise.” He said both carriers appeared eager to reassure shareholders that expensive fleet renewal was currently off the table, despite ageing aircraft. Statistics provided by S&P showed the Qantas fleet age had gone from seven to 11 years since 2014, and Virgin Australia’s fleet age had risen from five to 8½ years old in the same period. In contrast, Air New Zealand’s fleet age had fallen from 9½ to eight years since 2014. Mr Ferguson said eventually airlines would need to refresh ageing fleets. “We believe that reduced fleet investment and writedowns have artificially lowered the cost of ownership, cut operating efficiency and revenue opportunities, giving rise to a sizeable future funding task, threatening to weigh on industry metrics,” he said. On the international front, Mr Ferguson said strong competition would test the airlines’ ability to pass on higher fuel costs with the Brent oil price retracing much of its falls in late 2018.
Qantas names training buddy • •
THE AUSTRALIAN 12:00AM MAY 31, 2019 Qantas has announced a new training partner for its much-anticipated first pilot academy at Toowoomba in southern Queensland following the sudden departure of US company L3 Commercial Aviation. Flight Training Adelaide will provide traiing and a fleet of single and twin-engine aircraft for the academy, with the first intake of students in September this year. To date 22,000 people have registered their interest in training at the Qantas academy, and a formal application process is under way at qantas.com/pilotacademy. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said he expected there to be some exceptional talent among those who had put their hand up. “Qantas has a proud history for having some of the best pilots in the world, and we want to attract passionate young men and women to learn from the best to become the best,” Mr Joyce said. “FTA is a leading training provider and the Toowoomba site will be a world-class training school for future pilots.” Plans for hangars, classrooms and student accommodation at Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport are before Toowoomba Regional Council, with construction expected to start in coming months. The first students will be accommodated at the University of Southern Queensland while undergoing the course which has been designed for people with little or no flying experience. Mr Joyce said he was conscious several regional cities were still waiting to hear where Qantas would establish its second pilot training academy — which was expected to be announced last year. “We really appreciate their patience, as we focus on getting the first site to this stage,” Mr Joyce said. Those in the running, include Alice Springs, Bendigo, Busselton, Dubbo, Launceston, Mackay and Wagga Wagga.
The Qantas academy plans to train 100 students in its first year, increasing to 500 as time goes on. It’s estimated 790,000 additional pilots will be needed worldwide by 2038.