Originally Posted by
Beer Baron
You are wrong there. It was no shadow, it was 20 years of Qantas replacing us with cheaper labour.
Look around;
Jetstar with 80 jets
Network with 15 jets
JetConnect With 6 jets
Alliance contracted for ~26 jets
NJS with 29 jet on order.
All these planes, flying routes we used to fly, (even wearing our uniform and livery half the time) but Qantas set up or bought these entities to do it without us
No doubt
some routes that used to be operated by mainline are no longer,
but there is a tad bit of drama in your summation.
If Alliance (and to an extent NJS 717s) have picked up sectors from a 737, then cleary a 737 isn't the machine for it and I doubt those sectors would otherwise exists.
To suggest mainline would have ooperated 100 seat regional jets on the same EBA as a 737 requires a heck of an imagination.
I stand to be corrected but Jetconnect don't 'have' thier own aircraft anymore either.
Jetstar is closest you could claim as having 'taken' a number routes, but again I'd argue a fair portion of of that flying wouldn't otherwise exist in anywhere but the LCC space.
Like it or not the white hat isn't 'our' uniform, its a Qantas group uniform - SH, LH, Sunnies, Easterns, NJS, Network. That Alliance wear it too does little to change the price of bread.