Originally Posted by
Blackout
Not to mention how he downplayed the choice to go into VA and how he created much fanfare into how competitive the airline will be after the restructure.
Yes, and beyond the Pollyanna spin, the chronology is instructive.
- 13 March. 'The Group currently has a cash position in excess of $1 billion' (ASX announcement)
- 18 March. 'We are well positioned to weather this storm.' (Paul Scurrah, CEO)
- 17 April. 'We are fighting to survive on a day to day basis.' (Stuart Aggs, COO)
- 21 April. 'Our board made a very courageous decision last night to put the company into voluntary administration ...' (Paul Scurrah)
Elapsed time: 39 days.
If the reports that they went into administration with only around $150 million ($30 million in free cash, $120 million in restricted cash) left in the kitty are true, that's a cash burn of around $22 million a day. That is truly incandescent for a business that had stood 80 percent of its workforce down for at least half of that elapsed period; for 10 of the 39 days they were only operating two flights a day, Sydney-Melbourne return.
Based on their FY20-H1 interim report, when the business was running at full tilt, it was burning around $23 million a day so something doesn't add up there.