My thoughts:
- Focus on doing what the airline is good at and just do that. Don't try to be Qantas and don't try to chase Qantas because you will burn a lot of cash. Figure out what Virgin Australia is, and nail that. It started as Virgin Blue then morphed into this 'are we like Qantas, but we're not quite so let's burn a lot of cash trying to figure that out'.
- If a route ain't making money but you're doing it just to compete, cut it. You win some, you lose some. But it's a heck of a lot worse when you are losing cash.
- Keep your employees happy and motivated. Remember, they are the front line and they cop all the day to day abuse of having to deal with the public which is not easy.
- Further to above, keep the crew happy. No crew = no flight. Customers also react positively to good crew.
- Don't hire any consultants that have no idea about the aviation business and get them to give you 'advice'. That's also wasting money.
- Re-think the international routes. If they're not worth it, cut them and focus on being an awesome domestic airline. Use partner airlines to feed in domestic traffic (perhaps get more partner airlines?).
- Keep the fleet as efficient as possible.
This is just my opinion and I am not a CEO, and I certainly appreciate that running a large organisation is not so easy, especially with all the stakeholders involved. Everyone from the comfort of their own home can critique, but this is just my opinion as I love analysing businesses.