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A fresh effort by Singapore Airlines to get access to the lucrative Australia-US air route has crashed and burned after the Government said there was nothing in it for Australia.
He made the comments after a meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who pushed Australia to re-think its initial decision to bar Singapore Airlines from the route.
Singapore has long sought to get access to the trans-Pacific route which is one of the most lucrative in the world.
Earlier this year, after years of campaigning, the government decided to leave the route open only to American and Australian airlines.
Mr Truss said while Singapore had argued the benefits of opening the route, he and Mr Lee had ``agreed to disagree''.
He said there was scope for Australian cut-price carriers to access the route, while there would be benefits from American based companies flying south.
But Singapore Airlines' plan, and any reciprocal arrangement it could offer Australia, simply did not stack up, he said.
``Essentially, Australia has not closed off for all times the prospect of Singapore Airlines being able to operate on that route, but it is not likely to happen in the near future,'' he said.
Qantas boss Geoff Dixon said without reciprocal arrangements, which enabled Qantas to broaden into other markets, it would be stupid to open up the route to Singapore.
``I cannot think of any other industry where people would think it was a good idea to throw open your market to producers with whom your own firm do not have the opportunity to compete on equivalent terms,'' he said to a transport forum in Canberra.
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