GIVEN the amount of attention surrounding the Ansett collapse, I was a bit surprised to see how little fuss followed the Skywest deal announced last week.
GIVEN the amount of attention surrounding the Ansett collapse, I was a bit surprised to see how little fuss followed the Skywest deal announced last week.
Ensuring Skywest had a firm footing is no less important to WA than having a rival to Qantas competing on our interstate routes.
It is vital workers and experts can get to our resource-rich regions easily and relatively cheaply.
The importance of this cog in our State’s wheel is reflected in the fact that several resources companies were willing to underwrite Skywest until a deal was done.
Perhaps the announcement on Friday lacked the doubt that has hounded Ansett’s suitors for the past few months.
Rather than huge concerns about employee entitlements or terminal access, the Skywest deal is fairly clean and involves a company that, on its own, is profitable.
And soon, the community will get its chance to invest in this revitalised airline. The new owners hope to list Skywest on the stock market after a big fund raising.
Part of the plan is to lease jets to help the airline reach further.
Let’s hope that a bit more notice will be taken of the airline once it gets to that stage.
As a listed company, Skywest will need plenty of attention to massage its share price and maintain a full valuation.
Otherwise, there is every chance we’ll see a national carrier swoop on the regional player some time in the near future, all in the name of consolidation.
Skywest has proved it doesn’t need a big player to help pay its way, let alone to bleed it dry.
Numbers up
LAST week we gave the immigration debate a thoroughly deserved examination with a big critique on the impact of population growth on the economy.
It was good, therefore, to see Steve Vizard organise a national population summit that examined some of the issues we raised.
And some of the ideas floated are worthy of our renewed scrutiny.
For instance, paper and packaging tycoon Richard Pratt suggests Australia needs to more than double its population during the next 50 years to reach the magical figure of 50 million.
I think Australia does need more people. For those of us who live here, such growth provides our chance to create wealth for the future.
For those who are new, they arrive to a buoyant economy, a fact that will attract the best people here. We need new ideas, and it’s better they come from people who have come to participate, not to retire in sleepy hollow.
Newcomers will help us deal with concerns about our aging population and they will help boost regions that have stagnated.
I know many do not believe this is necessarily good. Some just want to cruise along as we are, slowly letting our grasp on global competitiveness ease.
Others worry about sustain-ability.
Author Tim Flannery is one whose opinion I deeply respect, yet he thinks we already have three times as many people as this continent can sustain.
He is probably right, if we don’t change our ways. But we all know there are many things we can do to make our communities sustainable.
Perth can easily sustain many more people, so long as we manage things like transport and waste treatment in a better way.
In fact, we need more people to make it affordable for us to have luxuries such as an efficient public transport system.
We already comfortably produce enough food and raw materials to feed, house and encase our own population many times over.
Ensuring Skywest had a firm footing is no less important to WA than having a rival to Qantas competing on our interstate routes.
It is vital workers and experts can get to our resource-rich regions easily and relatively cheaply.
The importance of this cog in our State’s wheel is reflected in the fact that several resources companies were willing to underwrite Skywest until a deal was done.
Perhaps the announcement on Friday lacked the doubt that has hounded Ansett’s suitors for the past few months.
Rather than huge concerns about employee entitlements or terminal access, the Skywest deal is fairly clean and involves a company that, on its own, is profitable.
And soon, the community will get its chance to invest in this revitalised airline. The new owners hope to list Skywest on the stock market after a big fund raising.
Part of the plan is to lease jets to help the airline reach further.
Let’s hope that a bit more notice will be taken of the airline once it gets to that stage.
As a listed company, Skywest will need plenty of attention to massage its share price and maintain a full valuation.
Otherwise, there is every chance we’ll see a national carrier swoop on the regional player some time in the near future, all in the name of consolidation.
Skywest has proved it doesn’t need a big player to help pay its way, let alone to bleed it dry.
Numbers up
LAST week we gave the immigration debate a thoroughly deserved examination with a big critique on the impact of population growth on the economy.
It was good, therefore, to see Steve Vizard organise a national population summit that examined some of the issues we raised.
And some of the ideas floated are worthy of our renewed scrutiny.
For instance, paper and packaging tycoon Richard Pratt suggests Australia needs to more than double its population during the next 50 years to reach the magical figure of 50 million.
I think Australia does need more people. For those of us who live here, such growth provides our chance to create wealth for the future.
For those who are new, they arrive to a buoyant economy, a fact that will attract the best people here. We need new ideas, and it’s better they come from people who have come to participate, not to retire in sleepy hollow.
Newcomers will help us deal with concerns about our aging population and they will help boost regions that have stagnated.
I know many do not believe this is necessarily good. Some just want to cruise along as we are, slowly letting our grasp on global competitiveness ease.
Others worry about sustain-ability.
Author Tim Flannery is one whose opinion I deeply respect, yet he thinks we already have three times as many people as this continent can sustain.
He is probably right, if we don’t change our ways. But we all know there are many things we can do to make our communities sustainable.
Perth can easily sustain many more people, so long as we manage things like transport and waste treatment in a better way.
In fact, we need more people to make it affordable for us to have luxuries such as an efficient public transport system.
We already comfortably produce enough food and raw materials to feed, house and encase our own population many times over.