A partial extract from 'AFR' today:

Exclusive

Internal documents reveal collapse in Qantas brand, trust

Kylar Loussikian and Aye

Nov 3, 2023 – 5.00am

Qantas has slumped behind arch-rival Virgin on all measures of brand trust, pride, “love”, value and transparency, damning confidential figures presented to senior managers show, revealing the extent of damage to the airline’s reputation this year.

The material, marked “prepared for internal discussion”, shows the proportion of consumers who would consider flying Qantas domestically has fallen so low that it is only two percentage points above that of its low-cost Jetstar subsidiary, and 19 points below that of Virgin...

...The documents, dated October 12 and obtained by The Australian Financial Review, show the percentage of consumers who said they trusted Qantas had fallen from 70 per cent in August to just 49 per cent. In that time, consumers who trusted Virgin rose from 53 per cent to 59 per cent...

...Ben McGarry, a fund manager at Totus Capital, said Qantas had been “over-earning”. He said improving customer service and replacing an ageing fleet was “going to be expensive and going to impact margins and the capital position and the ability to pay for dividends and buybacks”.

“I don’t think Qantas is a buy by any means at this level,” Mr McGarry said. “We still have a short position. Some of it is in the [share] price, but not all of it. It could be a struggle for a little bit longer.”

‘The crisis is ongoing’

Separate internal documents obtained by the Financial Review show Qantas management was warned that its “reputation, levels of trust, admiration and respect [were] substantially below levels recorded one year ago” in June..."