While there are no winners in the air war between Qantas and the Canberra Airport, the biggest losers are customers who have long been concerned about high ticket prices, flight cancellations and difficulties in meeting connecting services in Sydney.
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The stoush between Qantas and the national capital's airport has turned ugly in recent months.
Stephen Byron, Canberra Airport's managing director, went so far as to publicly offer $100,000 to either Qantas or Virgin as a reward for having the lowest number of cancellations on the Sydney route in April.
Since that offer was made this newspaper has received numerous letters from readers wanting to share horror stories about discovering the Sydney flights, which they had been relying on to make connections with international and interstate flights, were cancelled at short notice.
Often the only way in which a long planned, and very expensive, family holiday could be saved was to pay through the nose for a flight on the alternate carrier and hope travel insurance would cover the expense.
Some correspondents, who claimed the frequency of flight cancellations on the Canberra to Sydney route exceeded anything they had ever encountered, said the only way to be sure of connecting with a Sydney flight was to either drive or catch a coach service.
Qantas, meanwhile, continues to defend its service.
"The cancellation rate on Sydney to Canberra is higher than the national average, and we're working to fix that, but it's still very low in the scheme of things," Qantas Domestic chief executive, Andrew David, said last month.
"It's also one of the highest frequency routes in the country... if a flight is cancelled for operational reasons then the wait time is minimal."
While Mr David may, or may not, be able to produce data to back up his claims, he would have a hard time convincing the letter writer who reported having not one, but two, flights to Sydney cancelled back-to-back.
The bottom line, as public comments on stories published on the Canberra Times website earlier this week indicate, is many Canberrans regard air services between the National Capital and the Harbour City as unreliable and overpriced.
That is in nobody's best interests: certainly not Qantas's and certainly not the Canberra Airports.
Qantas has hit back by saying its experiences in the ACT were unique: "We deal with airports around Australia and around the world and none of them behave the way Canberra Airport does," Mr David said. "It's hard to see how a company can think attacking its biggest customer, which Qantas is, will improve matters."
He cited an incident in March, 2017, in which Canberra Airport allegedly used a car to block a diverted Qantas plane from taking off until a hefty diversion charge had been paid.
The dysfunctional relationship between the airport and its self-styled "biggest customer" has apparently now spilt over into other areas with Jetstar saying it would be reluctant to fly into Canberra.
The fully owned Qantas subsidiary has echoed the parent company's concerns about Canberra Airport's relationship with the flying kangaroo and its fee structure.
It is encumbent on both sides to take a more conciliatory approach to improving their relationship and sorting through the issues that are leaving the
