First of all, Qantas International lost $200m according to management. That year included volcanoes, tsunamis, grounding of the A380 fleet(because Qantas didn't control the maintanence of their engines). Senator Xenophon showed that Qantas is paying for many of Jetstar's bills. Frequent Flyer profits(which are sold straight off the back of the reputation of Qantas) are segmented and taken away from the International airline. So you see, Qantas has done this deliberately, to make anyone and everyone think that the International side is losing.
Secondly, once Qantas goes offshore, they can't own more than 49% of the company, yet they will be asked to invest upto 90% for the privilege of starting up an airline in a foreign country. So for a similar capital outlay, they will have to make double the profit than if they were running the full Australian airline. Now good luck with that.
Thirdly, it is not the fault of the unions, nor do I believe it is the fault of the management. I think you have it right and I believe the fault lies with the governments (Labor and Liberal), for allowing an open skies policy in which most of these airlines are protected by their own governments.
IMO, Qantas is in a corner of not its own fault. Maybe AJ should ground the airline until the government give them the same protections as the foreign airlines.
QAN Price at posting:
$1.59 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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(20min delay)