I'm not in the airlines industry..so please criticise me!
But the way I see the future for the Australian airline industry is that it will go the way of G.A.
The good thing is that there will be growth amid economic uncertainies. Like G.A, the airline industry may be able to cope with economic ups and downs in the future.
It will be great for the industry, new equipment and more jobs. It will be bad for the current employee's as pay will ultimately go down. It's a trade-off more jobs and more turn-over equals less fat-bastard jobs (i.e overpaid). On the down side the unions may perish as pilots and engineers get lower wages. Lets face it, when YOU buy an airline ticket you don't know if the pilot or engineer who pilots/maintains the aircraft is a veteren or a newcommer. That's because your pilot will be the one who passed the checkride and who was the cheapest. You get what you pay for. The people who will make the honey money are the managers and the shareholders.
To counteract the ultimate wage decrease for operational personel (pilots, enginneers, flight attendants, ground crew, ops crew) then the unions and members will have to unite or lose out. Before too long aviation personnel will be more like contractors than employees. If the current airline personnel and unions got talking then maybe you could stop the changing trends...amidst market forces. If it haden't been for 9/11, terrorism and S.A.R.S then maybe we would still have a two airlines premium market, but it's now going the way of the supermarkets....big and cheap.
On the other hand there will be more growth and more jobs. It will be great for the travelling public. Look at the fares now. It's finally cheaper to fly than to drive, it's also faster and saves YOU the stress of driving.
Since I'm in G.A it doesn't really bother me which way it goes...that word again ..go. For the guys and girls at the top, you'd better start excercising...cause in the near future your going to have to be flexible.
My thoughts
U2