§ 16. Mr. Michael Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will allow airlines to sell as many seats as they wish within the prescribed flight frequencies.
§ Mr. Michael SpicerGenerally they are already free to do so. As my hon. Friend knows, however, there are one or two isolated instances where sales of tickets are restricted under an arrangement between the aeronautical authorities, which allows the foreign airline to operate more services each week than would normally be justified under the agreement.
§ Mr. MorrisIs my hon. Friend aware of the problem facing Air Lanka, which is that when it flew TriStars on the London-Colombo route it was allowed to sell 830 seats, but now that it has improved services to the public by offering the Boeing 747 it has been restricted to just 690? Is that competition and giving a better service to the public?
§ Mr. SpicerThe only agreement with the Sri Lankan authorities, even predating the 747 flights, restricted the number of seats to 690, out of which 240 per week only are taken up by passengers travelling between London and Colombo.
408 We think that many sixth freedom passengers have been picked up at Singapore. That may be the reason why the Singapore authorities have given notice to terminate their agreement with Sri Lanka.