Originally Posted by
RodH
I’m sure the Government will not Privatise VA but will assist both Airlines financially.
What really sticks in my gall is the utter hypocrisy of AJ when he bleats about “having to compete against the Government “ if they did privatise VA.
Ansett had to compete with the Government owned Airlines until 1990 and sure they didn’t like it very much but got on fairly well until it’s demise.
Seems like AJ has forgotten this or reckons he could not cope with it.
He sure wants his cake and be able to eat it as well.
Time to sit back and hope this all passes quickly enough to be able to restart both Airlines and also Businesses throughout Australia without too much pain.
Reckon there’s going to be a big rethink on trading with China given their failure to implement lock downs in Wuhan as was advised much earlier by a Doctor than they did.
Hard times ahead but we can and will get through this and it will turn out to be better for all “on the other side “.
Best wishes to all in the Airlines and elsewhere as well.
You will survive.
Qantas may have been owned by the government back then but it operated in a cut-throat market against carriers for which Qantas' entire operation constituted, for some, 1% roughly of their operations. TAA was owned by the government and Ansett was a public, then private company. However, until 1990, AN and TN 'competition' was an utter joke... no other entrants allowed, 17,000 QF seats flying empty on domestic sectors of international flights every week not allowed to be sold, domestic air fares based on union demands followed by caving in then jacking the fares up. Number of seats, everything almost down to ads had to be approved.
Something else people forget, the AN/TN cabal INSISTED on QF and other international airlines offering pro-rata fares ... i.e. equivalent KM charge... but they abjectly REFUSED to do so for Qantas and other international airlines in return... Nope, you want interline to their network you pay the full, inflated, featherbedded and immovable fare.
AN and TN were not in competition, they were two mollycoddled, protected duopoly members. They wouldn't have known what competition was if it'd hit them in the face and both of them proved it when Compass started, by graciously offering the required to two gates... one on one pier and the other on the end of the second pier, about a kilometre apart. Qantas did the pushbacks because the domestics refused to.
So, we'll have no lectures about competition between AN and TN thanks.
As for the point AJ was making, rightly or wrongly, was that both airlines should be treated equally and the government should not nationalise a carrier which has mismanaged its balance sheet for more than 10 years. I sincerely hope VA survives and QF but it would seem a bit unfair if the government shelled out billions to save VA and QF got nothing and for maintaining a strong balance sheet it emerged weakened.