AAP
17:43 AEST Sun 19 Oct 2003
No sell-offs: Qantas
Qantas Airways Ltd has ruled out spinning off parts of its business, for now anyway, despite a series of measures to cut costs and stay competitive.
"We have no intention at this point to be floating any of our businesses off," chairman Margaret Jackson told the Nine Network's Business Sunday program.
But she would not rule out such a move in future.
"It doesn't mean that sometime in the future your intention changes or circumstances change, or opportunities emerge, but at the moment we are very happy with the mix of businesses that we have," she said.
"We think there is some great opportunities for growth in those businesses."
Australia's dominant airline last week said it would launch a low cost airline next May, to take on domestic rival Virgin Blue Airlines Pty Ltd.
It also outlined a strategy to cut costs by $1 billion over the next two years, involving splitting the company into 10 operating units with separate leadership.
Analysts said both moves were sound defensive measures, largely influenced by the growing market share of Virgin Blue, which now has about 30 per cent of the domestic market.
But analysts were also disappointed the airline gave scant detail on how it planned to execute the strategy.
Ms Jackson denied the head-on challenge to Virgin Blue was not an act of "desperation".
"I don't think it (has) a hint of desperation," she said.
"It is just us looking at the market, looking at what we can do to service the market better, what can we do to underpin tourism in Australia.
"Starting a low cost carrier, what we know is that people are sensitive to price and we believe that we might be able to also stimulate the demand for travel."
Qantas shares fell three cents to $3.55 on Friday.
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