Peter Harbison

Long haul low-cost carriers today account for around 20% of all international seats at Melbourne and Sydney Airports, and growing. The percentage is in practice considerably higher than that, because they all operate solely in Southeast Asia and North Asia, Australia’s fastest growing market. In Asian markets the proportion exceeds a third of all seats. At those levels, the impact of LHLCCs on the shape of this key market becomes pivotal. Firstly, the long haul LCCs have a durable impact on...

This article is based on a presentation by Peter Harbison, Chairman of Greener Airlines at WIT Singapore, October 2025 The Mother Ship Wobbles Almost every one of your businesses represented at WIT depends on aviation. I always find it a bit ironic though that it’s barely considered. Most take it for granted. Flights happen, planes land, passengers shuffle through terminals. But beneath the glossy surface of global connectivity lies a fragile ecosystem, one buffeted by uncertainty, upheaval,...

Tourism Australia’s release of its tourism visitor survey for the financial year 2025 isn’t good news for the business travel market. At 745,000 trips, travel numbers were down by 4% compared with the previous financial year, 2024. But even worse, the total spend from business travel for the year was down even more markedly, at 19%, to $1.8 billion.  The 2025 dollar level is down by more than a quarter compared with financial year 2019, at a time when business travel was on an upward trend,...