How about the Qantas Board who effectively bet a fortune that fuel prices would not rise by having one of the most inefficient long haul fleets in the world. Air France, Singapore, Cathay, KLM, United, BA, JAL etc etc have long moved away from the "heavy metal" gas guzzling 744 as their long-haul mainstay. How much higher has the QF fuel bill been than it needed to be over the past couple of years? Who's now paying the price? From being aggressively in the lead for most of its fleet planning history QF will now soon set the record as being the last of the world's major carriers to get the 777. 10 years after it entered service!
Like the days of the Two Airline Policy where any given flight on say Australian could be operated by an A300, 727, DC9 or 737 (similar maybe even worse in AN), the employees ultimately pay the price of timid boards or headstrong yet blinkered management.