Can non-Australian airline operate Australian domestic routes through wet lease reque
 

The AFL season is about to conclude and one speculation is that Fremantle and West Coast Eagles may come head to head in the Grand Final held in the MCG. If that happens, and assuming only 50% of attendance are from Western Australia (50,000) will be present, this will cause extreme stress to Australian's aviation system.

The entire fleet of Virgin Australia can only offer 19403 seats and 29002 of Qantas, totalling it to be only 48405 seats available on game day, provided each airline sacrifices all other services of the day except PER-MEL-PER to cater for the special event.

Clearly this is unrealistic and therefore should Freo is going against West Coast on the Grand Final day, for the huge demand of coast to coast traffic, is it possible for Virgin and Qantas to wet lease (plane + crew) planes from overseas, such as Emirates 777 and A380 from Qantas and ANZ, SIA and Etihad fleet for Virgin to operate this domestic sector to relieve special event demand?

Therefore my question is, can non-Australian airline operate Australian domestic routes through wet lease request from domestic airlines?

Yes, a foreign carrier can operate a QF or VA sector on behalf of QF or VA via a wet lease.

For the most part, it's more complicated in terms of whether a foreign carriers could operate an Australian domestic sector in its own right. NZ certainly could, but others such as EK, SQ or EY is a trickier question.

Australian Law permits the CAA to give a dispensation for foreign airlines to operate domestic flights when the needs cannot be met by local airlines. I was an ATC during the pilots strike when this was invoked, and it had some interesting results.

I remember an American West 737 who seemed to forget they were going to Canberra and was still at cruise altitude 50 miles south of Yass :eek: Along with American West, there was Monarch and Royal Brunei from memory. There was also the chance to pax in a herc!

Photo from http://www.flight.org/australian-pilot-dispute-of-1989

http://www.flight.org/wp-content/upl..._2A97_177a.jpg

I have a great selection of slides and prints of nearly all the foreign registered aircraft which operated in Australia during that time.

And my sister was stranded in Perth during the strike and returned to Melbourne with British Airways and a minimum of fuss.

It has to be said that the 1989 Pilots Dispute was not a 'strike'.

There's a fairly in depth analysis of the dispute that is easily found with a quick Google search. The use of the RAAF during the dispute is also questionable, most likely because of Sir Peter Abeles connections with Bob Hawke at the time.

Mick