We have the youngest fleet of any airline and always use "the right aircraft for the right route".
Indeed at privatisation thanks to a handy $1.35 billion (in 1994 dollars) Qantas HAD the lowest IATA fleet age at 6.3 years.
Including JQ yes the fleet age is acceptable on an international basis. Take those 120 odd aircraft out and the fleet age is getting up there at 11.7 years last time I checked. So Brontosaurus Clifford is right, Qantas needs a new fleet. Shame the reptilian brain didn't think of that before handing out $1.75 billion of other people's money..
Qantas needs a domestic twin aisle aircraft, i dunno a 788. Instead they sent them to the backpacker network. Now Australia crams single aisle aircraft into the same airspace for the same uplift.Two 738 is about 1.5 767 worth of passengers....No wonder congestion is worse.
When you consider the vigour with which JQ was expanded and executed throughout the region, its actual contribution is not that great. There is a role for JQ, but it never was going to be the nirvana IR wanted. low fare airlines are very sensitive to economic cycles and highly elastic models. You need to fill the aircraft all the time... Of course warehousing the expense (perfectly permitted under accounting convention) allows a different
industrially suitable narrative.