Koala Airlines

[rdhopkins2]

Another financial year and another airline is on the cards in Australia. This comes on the wake of the demise of Bonza & Rex in the past 12mths.

Welcome.
Koala Airlines are the latest entrant in the Australian domestic market.

I wish Koala well in their endeavours but I’d like to know their strategy on how can they be innovative and cost effective to begin operations. Further, Koala will need to take considerable market share from the big Roo & Virgin (hey true blue).

https://www.news.com.au/travel/koala-airlines-hopes-to-launch-in-australia/news-story/e586e7dce30af6da0dd5b832dde5b255

Koala Airlines - Koala Airlines Australia

A New Flight Path for Australian Aviation In the past few years, Koala Airlines has been committed to redefining air travel and setting new standards in ways that resonate with today’s travellers which will reshape the Australian landscape. Our Approach The Domestic Airline Industry is on the...

koalaair.com.au

Plenty of questions though as they aren’t giving much away on their website yet.

So who is your market?
Business
leisure?
mixed?

What planes do you
own?
lease?

What are the plans to expand the fleet when the airline grows?

What staff do you have / will you have to start up?

Where is your start up capital coming from?
How can you fund a domestic major airline start up?

What routes will you fly?
Intercity? Ie Melbourne - Sydney- Brisbane - Adelaide - Perth
Regional? Ie Sydney - Tamworth
Mixed?

Will you use secondary city airports ie Melbourne Avalon? Western Sydney?

What makes you different from QF & VA to attract clients to switch?

What marketing research has been done?

Wishing Koala Airlines all the best and I look forward to hearing further news of their launch in future.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Successive Federal governments have failed to take action against the Qantas and Virgin duopoly.

As Rod Sims, former chair of the ACCC said.

The problem, and this is the biggest public policy failure, is our slot allocation system. To fly the capital city routes, obviously the Sydney-Melbourne route, but the others as well, you have to get the scarce slots at Sydney Airport. The government outsources the management of the slots at Sydney Airport to a company that's majority owned by Qantas and Virgin. So, when Rex or Bonza, who wanted extra slots at Sydney Airport want those key slots that they must have to be viable, they have to go and essentially ask for them from Qantas and Virgin.​

Any time a new Australian airline enters the market, Qantas will match the routes on a net loss knowing they can take the profit margin away and kill the competitor while being able to absorb the losses.

From the Rex annual report.

Rex’s financial misfortune was largely the result of Qantas’ illegal anti-competitive behavior in the prior years when the latter dumped excess capacity on Rex’s regional routes in the hope of damaging us so much that our nascent domestic operations would not be able to succeed and grow. As could have been predicted, this has resulted in Rex’s regional business (excluding regulated routes) suffering a loss before tax of $26m in the period under review compared to profits of $5m prior to COVID.​

 

[kickazz]

TAA, Ansett, Compass, Bonza, Rex

How will Koala be different?

 

[rdhopkins2]

Oh dear.

There were plenty of sceptics indeed (plenty of well wishers too) but Koala Airlines are now facing a wind up application.

Koala Airlines faces winding-up application

Wealth Creation Pty Ltd has lodged the application against Koala, which gained some press last year as a potential new competitor in domestic aviation following the collapse of Bonza. A hearing in the Supreme Court of Victoria is scheduled for 22 January.

australianaviation.com.au

 

[Frank Bunn]

Same old. Successive Federal governments have failed to take action against the Qantas and Virgin duopoly.