Virgin takes Bali fight to Qantas

Virgin Australia has hit back at a Qantas attempt to muddy its plan to use Tigerair on routes to Bali.

Virgin Australia has hit back at a Qantas attempt to muddy its plan to use low-cost subsidiary Tigerair on routes to Bali, with accusations its bigger rival does not understand the legislative framework surrounding international operations.

It also criticised the International Air Services Commission for allowing Qantas to lodge a submission on its request for ­capacity to Indonesia after a ­published deadline and called on it to rule on its application “without further delay’’.

Virgin requested the capacity for Tigerair after announcing plans to use the low-cost carrier to launch flights next year to Bali from Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne using Boeing 737s sourced from the parent company.

Qantas, which uses Jetstar on the Bali routes and is restarting seasonal main line operations to the holiday destination, responded by writing to the IASC expressing concern on how the operations would be structured.

The Qantas submission said Virgin’s application failed to provide information on the entity that would use the capacity other than to say it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Virgin Australia International Airlines and called on the commission to ensure it met the necessary conditions, including majority Australian ownership.

In a response lodged yesterday, Virgin said a lack of understanding of the legislative framework as well as the roles of the commission and the Infrastructure Department was “apparent in the Qantas submission’’.

The submission said its applications complied with legislation and policies and “there was no requirement that it needed to name the wholly-owned subsidiaries or subsidiary for which capacity was sought, although in this case the capacity would be used by Tigerair”.

It also noted that conditions ­relating to ownership and control were mandatory for all IASC ­determinations and it assumed this would apply to its application.

However, the commission did not possess any powers to assess, monitor or enforce ownership requirements because this role resided with the department and it needed to review its application only in terms of public benefit.

Criticising the decision to allow Qantas to lodge a late submission, Virgin said it seemed “compliance with the commission’s published procedures is optional’’.

“The commission will appreciate the importance of all Australian carriers being subject to the same procedures and requirements in relation to its administration of the Act and minister’s policy statement,’’ it said.

“Variability and lack of certainty for stakeholders in the application of this legislative framework is inconsistent with the commission’s ability to effectively perform its functions and pursue the object of the Act ‘to enhance the welfare of Australians by promoting economic efficiency through competition in the provision of international air services’.’’

Separately, government figures released yesterday showed the number of domestic commercial aviation passengers fell slightly in fiscal 2015 compared to the previous year.

Almost 60 million passengers flew on passenger and charter flights, down 0.9 per cent on the previous year.

Aircraft trips fell 1.5 per cent to 689,162.