Er, Kap M, not quite sure where you get the idea that I was claiming Dixon had produced any type of unique proposal. Maybe your usual prolific use of quotation marks is the only way you can prevent yourself from misrepresenting others.
You appear to be rooted in a far more genteel, post war, pre-deregulation era when the proliferation of state owned carriers and excessive regulation led to airlines with huge, bloated bureaucracies and endemic inefficiencies. Naturally, this resulted in enormous salaries and generous conditions for pilots, flight attendants and other employees. This was a worldwide phenomenon.
The breaking down of these barriers in a more liberalised environment has beem retarded buy infrastructure constraints which have prevented the LCC's from developing the critical mass required to force rapid change in the market.
This has been solved overseas by the use of secondary airports, but the lack of such facilities in Australia meant that an LCC could only prosper by the demise of an incumbent. Sadly this was Ansett.
But now with a robust, efficient and ambitious competitor, Qantas has no option but to be proactive and be the driver of change before its too late. Anyone with commercial nous will tell you that a $500m profit on turnover of over $20b, with future capital commitments of greater than $10b, is simply not enough. The only way to sustain such borrowings is to increase the share price, and hence the market capitalisation, to a point where financial institutions are prepared to provide finance on terms which allow the airline to commercially facilitate the investment.
To prosper in such an environment and produce the results required, you must have strong, capable management who are paid absolute top dollar. Geoff Dixon is a long way from the highest paid CEO in Australia but has been voted number 1 by his peers. We are getting him for a steal and I say double his pay.
I can see the writing on the wall and I'm off to work for one of Q's LCC's as soon as possible.
Your implication that inefficient conditions and salaries can be retained whilst at the same time staving off competition and continuing growth is somewhat counter intuitive.
Please take the time to advise us all of how exactly you would deal with the changing situation in the market and exactly how you would negotiate with the 14 unions to address this issue.
Your solutions are keenly anticipated.