Qantas and Virgin are under fire for holding back other airlines from getting access to Sydney airport.
👉 Background: Qantas (including Jetstar) and Virgin are the two big dogswhen it comes to domestic travel in Australia.
👉 What happened: Now, Sydney Airport’s CEO has raised concerns that these two have been holding back other airlines from getting access to Sydney airport, aka Australia’s biggest gateway.
👉 What else: Effectively, he claims that these two are booking excessive airport slots and then cancelling some flights at the last minute. And because of this hoarding behaviour, other airlines aren’t getting access to Sydney Airport.
💡In the business world, competition can take many different forms… including gatekeeping opportunities.
💡Hoarding airport slots is a bit like when your flaky friend gets a ticket to a hard-to-get concert that YOU MISSED OUT ON... but bails last minute. In fact, both Qantas and Virgin have had a ~10% cancellation rate for flights out of Sydney, when the national rate is around 3.9%.
💡Booking in extra slots can be a sneaky way for airlines to chase away competition. And now, the ACCC are a bit suss of this hoarding behaviour too.
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