Commonwealth bilateral air service agreements

Productivity Commission submission

20 September 2023

The Productivity Commission provided a submission to the Senate Select Committee Inquiry into Commonwealth bilateral air service agreements.

This submission makes two key points:

Benefits of further liberalisation: The Commission has previously found that although Australia’s international aviation policy settings have generally served Australia well, there would likely be net benefits to the Australian community from further liberalisation of international air services – specifically, from granting international airlines greater access to Australia’s major airports (Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney). We remain of this view.
Transparent cost-benefit analysis: The Commission also found – and remains of the view – that decisions and outcomes could be improved with greater use of transparent cost–benefit analysis, which includes a clear statement from the Australian Government about how it assesses the aggregate national interest and how any trade-offs are made when balancing the interests of different groups.

The Commission provided the submission to the inquiry on 18 September 2023 and it was published on the Commission's website on 20 September 2023.

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