A good start, but this is the one I'd like to see.
"30 December 2010.
Qantas was today named airline of the year ending Emirates record seven year run and capping a stellar corporate recovery by its management team led by CEO Wirraway.
In 2005 Qantas almost collapsed under the weight of an ACCC investigation of predatory pricing, "anomalies" in its accounts, decliining passenger numbers, and a public perception that it was an obstacle to the development of the Australian tourist industry as well as "not being Australian any more" as one child put it.
The final straw was the Governments announcement of its "open skies" policy that saw Qantas stripped of the capacity advantages that underpinned its international market share.
Massive industrial unrest by its 36,000 staff was followed by a hostile takeover offer. The takeover offer was withdrawn after investigating accountants discovered that the corporation's accounts had been gutted to produce its previous "record" profits and that the airline operations were now barely sustainable.
The Chairman and CEO resigned and the remaining Directors announced their intention not to renominate, leaving the airline rudderless. At this point a loose coalition of airline staff (the pprune group) aided by creditors, existing stockholders and merchant banks mounted a rescue operation that was eventually accepted by all shareholders, leading to the appointment of Wirrawy and his management team.
Among the the terms of this agreement was a staff shareholding scheme providing for staff to own up to 49% of the airline, the creation of a single staff union, a moratorium on industrial action, pay cuts for a specified period, agreements providing for development of flexible work procedures and a commitment that safety would remain the ultimate consideration in all matters.
"Qantas is going to fight back" announced Wirraway, "we are going to prove that no one, with or without Government backing, can produce a safer, friendlier, more convenient, and excellent transport product for the money than Qantas".
These proved to be prophetic words. Wirraway's first luck was the finessing of the sale of its A380 aircraft production slots and the negotiation of contracts to purchase 200 smaller aircraft at a profit of $500 million that was enough to address its most pressing financial needs.
This sale was necessitated by the new Qantas strategic direction of abandoning its Sydney based hubbing strategy and flying smaller aircraft more frequently to direct city to city pairs from its new bases in each capital city.
Economies came from the merging of the international and domestic operations and aircraft fleets that provided enough workload to support the multi base strategy, and extremely sophisticated scheduling and route management (some would say almost magical). "There are no domestic and international divisions anymore," stated Wirraway," there is just Qantas. You want to fly from Adelaide to Athens or Alice Springs? Makes no difference. We will take you door to door with no unnecessary stopovers".
Further economies came from the sale of much of its Sydney based heavy maintenance facilities that were moved to country NSW. This proved popular with staff who liked the more relaxed lifestyle and cheaper cost of housing.
Outsourcing was discarded except for things for which mass markets already existed "People pay to fly on airplanes piloted by Australians, crewed by Australians, and maintained by Australians. We promise we will always give them that Australian expereince. Its what makes Qantas what it is." said Wirraway.
Management was rejigged to provide a very small head office function, located at Sydney Airport itself and the distribution of administrative and training areas to bases with cheaper real estate.
Although initially sceptical, domestic and international customers eventually warmed to the Qantas marketing campaign freindly service - (Qantas, its Australian for "Great!" ), smaller aircraft with larger crews - (Qantas, say hello to your fellow passengers) as well as its now renowned flawless ability to deliver passengers with minimal disruption to their final destination.
Qantas pitched itself towards the higher cost end of the market explained Wirraway;"we ask for a slight premium on the ticket price" he explained, "but we give you more seat room and better service, a choice of more direct daily daily flights to your destination. There are cheaper airlines out there, but they are not as good value for money as we are." This paved the way for the triumphant return of Qantas to the 150 ports it now flies to.
At the time, the city to city strategy was seen as risky, but that was before we had experienced the A380 phenomenon and the creation of Air rage riot squads at hubs to deal with dynamics of 700 or so frustrated passengers.
Qantas declared profits of $5 billion dollars last year and its 80,000 staff stand to share approximately half of its recently declared 2 billion dollar dividend.