Skywest receives security screening bill from Qantas

Airline Industry Information, July 11, 2005

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

West Australian regional airline Skywest received on Thursday (7 July) a AUD925,000 bill from Qantas for the security screening of its passengers from March 2002 until now.

Skywest said on Friday (8 July) it had no knowledge of charges it had allegedly incurred at regional airports in Western Australia where Qantas is the designated security screening agent.

Qantas was responsible for implementing additional security measures that have been introduced by the Federal Government and, except for Skywest, all airlines have promptly paid all invoices related to their share of security screening costs since 2001, said a Qantas spokesperson.

The Qantas security charge could halve Skywest's projected net profit of AUD1.73m for 2005.

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