Qantas group profit drivers are domestic and QFF. Obviously international traffic feeds into domestic operations so I’m not trying to discredit the role of International. Qantas own most their fleet. They obviously have debt to service so there may be a balance where a bit of extra revenue is a good thing even if it is loss making. I suspect the scope for this is very small, and it’s far more likely the A380 operation will take another year off with their crews remaining stood down.
Jefferies Investment Bank have assumed QF wages bill next financial year will be over 50% down from FY19. They have assumed the government will be very slow opening international borders even once a vaccine is developed.
Leave accrual for 1500 long haul pilots whilst stood down cost the company about $30M/yr. That is the redundancy payout for more than 400 juniors.
There are tough decisions ahead. I’d like to believe no pilot who doesn’t want to leave the company will be forced to. It is becoming clear though that keeping the piloting family together is going to be dependent on our leadership.