Ok Beaver, given you’re such a deep thinker, perhaps you can answer me this.
Given Qantas are apparently basing billion dollar capital investment decisions on whether their pilots are disgruntled or not, then why not give them the one thing that they require to keep them happy but will not cost Qantas one cent?
For instance, what’s wrong with giving an assurance about limiting the expansion of Jet Connect beyond the Tasman?
They state over and over that there are absolutely no plans for them to do any other flying and we have nothing to worry about. So why not put it in writing?
“Because we need flexibility” they say. Well the only constraint on their “flexibility” is that they couldn’t have Jet Connect fly beyond the Tasman. But they state that will NEVER happen and we are irrational to even worry about such things. So it's a bit of a circular argument.
The reality is, the only reason not to make such an assurance is because you want the ability to use one entity to undercut the other one some time down the track. This is why Qantas pilots should be very, very worried and “moving on from this” would be a bad career move.