The Future of Australian International Aviation: Liberalisation, Competition, and the Dutch Disease

For many years, until about 2000, Australia’s international aviation grew moderately and predictably. Inbound and outbound traffic were close to being balanced, though the former had exceeded the latter by the 1990s. Australian airlines (mainly Qantas) have had a slowly declining share of the traffic, though they have maintained their profitability. This was in spite of strong competition from, initially, the Asian airlines, most of which had the advantage of lower costs, and, later, the Gulf airlines.