RC: Oh dear oh dear oh dear.....
This is one of those very rare occasions I agree with you! More likely an unique occasion - so don't think for one second think this relationship will evolve any further.
I have been convinced that Dear Leader is totally incompetent for a very long time.
There are TWO (possibly 3) things I give him credit for. Firstly, he can use the billions Qantas has provided him to renovate a room into a nice bar. Now many people have managed to create nice bar/cafe's without billions of dollars, or guaranteed licensing etc etc, but I am a generous man at heart, so lets give him credit there. What he's done with that cafe/bar mix, is to turn that into a brand of soft corruption worthy of Chairman Xi Jinping dealing with Pacific Islands. And there is NO doubt, that has been hugely successful - he's read the market very well in that regard. It's inoculated himself against negative press, a negative political environment and also given him enormous clout amongst the small CEO club of Australia. The final plank in his repertoire is his ability to argue for his own benefit (ie:lie
) - at the expense of everything Qantas stands for -to rape the place with a vigour that defies his stature. To the point I'm sure his sexual partners would attest to same.
Undoubtedly this guy in a business sense has passion fingers (f%cked anything he's touched) but politically he's good.
So - given his great triumph is the Chairmans Lounge, what's he done that anyone with his skillset would do? He's expanded the concept massively. He's worked out that being a contestant on 'The Block' with an unlimited budget and not actually having to even swing a hammer himself is far easier than actually running an airline. Tricky things airlines, even with a near monopoly and possessing all the trickyness of a cunning Leprechaun!
I don't think he has any interest in actually running the airline (as do you RC), he is about using the Lounges to grab customers through the qantas.com website. And it is sort of working.
There are a couple of problems with this. Other airlines have them too, and once they exist around Australia the differentiation between Lounges will diminish. So too with the Chairmans Lounge. At the moment it buys political and press compliance, but as Qantas flies to fewer and fewer places, this will diminish rapidly.
The other tiny problem is that as a virtual airline, it has been done before. And quite well too. We have Google, Tripadvisor, Expedia, Webjet, Flightcenter, Priceline, Hotwire, Travelocity, Orbitz - and that's just off the top of my head. The reach of Qantas.com is pretty much domestic only - and anything just domestic, will, over time, simply wither without a product behind it. The major issue with any website is driving traffic to it. While the Lounges in Australia are attractive that will be possible. But without a SIGNIFICANT benefit to people, that will fall off quickly.
Then we get to the Company 'Mission Statement'. Successful Companies have a single statement that clearly states what it is they do. As far as I can work out, for Qf, it's 'What's in it for me?' because Qf has demonstrated it really doesn't know what it is anymore. Webjet? National Flag Carrier? Round the world airline? Domestic airline? Jetstar? Red Q? Licencing operation? Vehicle for the CEO's political ambitions? Hard to say... I asked this question of an HR drone in a 'meeting' they generously organised for me a few years ago, and they couldn't answer the question either, in fact, it had them totally stumped. If the Thought Police cannot answer such a simple question, what hope do the rest have who don't mainline Company KoolAid hourly?
In short, unbelievably, I think you are right RC. QF doesn't _need_ to have aircraft, but if it doesn't it will sooner or later cease to exist. I think most people here believe that is a shame.
Never in the history of Australian business have so few enriched themselves so much, at the expense of so many
.