Actually, good point VH-Cheer Up. I believe the reason is that most of the business market flies in the non-flexible fare zone these days and it is one of the reasons why the market will be hard to extract as a cost-effective group.
Ozjet, I think, has erred in targeting that market and Qantas will atleast defend its position. Even so Ozjet will try to take credit for changing that, but it will be short lived as its Dutch investor gets itchy feet.
The damage to Ozjet revenue will be hard to recover and typical recovery time frames for a solid campaign of just 1 month is 6 months. And the best time for Qantas to do this is right now in advance for 6 months and it will send Ozjet spiralling into debt and out of business within 12 months.
On the further note, of ageing aircraft, it is my view that provided they are correctly maintained and flown, there shouldn't be a problem. My big beef with these is that they will pollute our great city of Sydney even more than ever and I think it is time we took a stand on that.
Anyway, to be honest, if they are hiring inexperienced pilots from the regionals I wonder how long it will be before the poor safety record of general aviation creeps into Australian mainline operations.
What do you think?