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Biz Asia

Peter Harbison of Center for Asia Pacific Aviation Discusses Future of Ansett Airlines

Aired September 11, 2001 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DALTON TANONAKA, CNN ANCHOR: For his thoughts on the Ansett situation, we are joined by Peter Harbison, managing director of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation. He's based in Australia and now in transit in Bangkok.

Sir, how certain do you see a Qantas-Ansett deal over the regulatory flags?

PETER HARBISON, CENTER FOR ASIA-PACIFIC AVIATION: It's a very difficult deal to put together, and it's one which is born, of course, out of desperation, desperation not just only Ansett's plight, but over Air New Zealand as well, which is the listed stock that owns Ansett. I think it's still got some way to go before we can be sure that Qantas will find a way of swallowing Ansett, because even apart from the regulatory controls you talked about, it's still got a lot of very difficult issues.

TANONAKA: It's not a done deal, you're saying?

HARBISON: Not a done deal, I don't think. There is a very keen edge to the timing because Air New Zealand has to report its results in the next hour, so it needs something in position before it can report.

TANONAKA: Why can't a non-Australian carrier step in -- or maybe they don't want to?

HARBISON: Ansett at the moment is losing something like anywhere between $10 to $15 Australian a week, so it's not a attractive proposition, as it stands, for anybody, even for Qantas -- of course, taking it out of the market.

I think on that vein, whatever happens, Ansett is going to emerge from this a very, very different creature. So it just makes it extraordinarily difficult to find any sort of purchase, particularly in this very short time frame.

TANONAKA: Is the government's concern more focussed on upcoming elections or Ansett's 16,000 workers that could be out of jobs.

HARBISON: I think both of them get merged into the same issue. The promote of losing 16,000 jobs and, on a minor scale, we are coming up to school holidays in at least one of the states at the moment; to lose half the fleet at that stage is very unattractive politically. But yes, I think the edge that's on this is political; if it were not an election period, we would probably see Ansett fall over.

Peter Harbison, Center for Asia-Pacific Aviation, in Australia, thank you very much.

END

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