[thorn bird]

"There is a bit of a stink beginning to waft out of the Northern Territory, and it is coming from charter operators incensed over the Royal Flying Doctor Service's move into commercial charter operations. Existing charter companies are viewing this as an unfair advantage because the RFDS is at heart a charity that gets a large amount of its funding from the general public. The actual depth of the ire is not easy to gauge and the argument itself is riddled with holes. Firstly, should any charity be allowed to run a commercial operation? The general answer to that is probably "yes". If a charity can get funds from an alternate source to ease the burden on the giving public, then I don't see a problem with that. The reality is that it happens all the time."

Err, scuse me, but charities pay no tax, I understand no GST either, receive concessions against air nav charges, nor pay import duty on parts and I believe substantial concessions against fuel excise.
I have heard their operating costs are substantially less than a legitimate commercial operator because of these "concessions".

They are incredibly aggressive when lobbying for commercial contracts, especially government tenders.

I don't believe "commercial" operators would have an argument if there was a level playing field, but there aint, as evidenced by the very high number of commercial contracts awarded to "Charities". One could suspect in reality corporations masquerading as charities.

What next, charity airlines? Wow imagine the top exec's bonuses.