Are QF doing any international flying right now? Freight or otherwise? Genuine question as I don't know... over at Air NZ, ignoring the Aussie Freight flights, we're still doing AKL - LAX, SFO, HKG, PVG, NRT, SIN, ICN along with Tasman and Pac Islands, virtually all freight.
Don't get me wrong, I've been scratching my head as to how we landed BNE (and possibly MEL) Freight contracts, and if I were a QF Pilot stood down on zero pay I'd probably be irate. However, I honestly suspect it was purely a case of "we're already operating Freight flights and have the Crew/Aircraft available" whilst Skippy has stood everyone down.
Financially, I'm not privy to the financials of individual flights. However, we are still burning through cash, just at a reduced rate post redundancies and restructuring. Given Air NZ can't stand down Crew like QF can, it makes sense utilising crew where possible to claw back some of the costs... financially speaking, it might actually be cheaper to not operate these flights and simply stand everyone down as QF have done.
As for the Loan being a "subsidy", well that's a stretch given it's at 7-9% interest. Yes, I expect after the election we're likely to see the Government increase their shareholding in the Airline, but that has its own consequences and implications... as the GM Pilots said at my last refresher "there's no such thing as free money". If we do end up as an SOE, I fear for my redundant colleagues as I doubt we'll be in much of a position to "expand" back to pre-Covid levels for some time.
Honestly, it's a game of survival right now. Aussie Carriers were able to stand crew down, Air NZ has to either pay us to stay at home or make us redundant.. it's no wonder they're chasing freight contracts.