Sunfish points out the bleeding obvious that most of you "dreamers" seem to want to ignore. I say again - check out the European forums and you'll see what type of operater this bloke is. And talk about a mediocre (read lame) interview in the press "to Dixon and Godfrey - please leave us alone - we're just little guys".
Remember this is a market that
VB needs to survive - and it is going to move heaven and earth to get a part of it. This is also a market on which QF domestic deeply depends - and it will use every card in its hand to play it.
Waav8r - your comments re-"professionalism" of their AOC process are laughable.
Lets look at the facts;
1. Stoddart is targetting the high-end business market with 33 year old aircraft. That is an oximoron. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Over the past 5 years the business market has woken up to being ripped off - you don't think that they are going to see it and feel the rip off with being asked to pay very high fares with a product which in essence is "mutton dressed up as lamb"?
2. The business traveller wants frequency and flexibility above all else. Then its network, then its product. OZjet has a questionable product only.
3. Unless I am mistaken they are paying the lowest pilot rates outside of GA in Australia. Your ignorance of this is breathtaking seeing as it has to be the most frequently raved about issue on PPRUNE.
4. You applaud them paying for endorsements and hiring crews from GA. Well, der! What pilot (even GA) is going to outlay $A30K of his own dosh for an endorsement that he can only use in a declining number of 3rd world countries?
Inevitably I will be attacked for knocking down the tall poppy. Really I could care less about OZJet - personally I wont fly anything but QF. They may not be the best airline in the world but they are the best we've got. Most often cheaper, significant network, frequent flier prog, etc etc.
What bothers me most is the continuing bastardisation and degradation of the airline industry in Australia. Even in India, where we would expect to see cheap start-ups, every one of the new airlines is either buying brand new or leasing nearly new aircraft. Stoddart's model ignores all the basic lessons of modern aviation sustainability. As you all know, the new benchmark for pilot salaries when you come to negotiate with your airlines will now be OZJet's level. What he saves on lease costs on newer aircraft will be drowned out by the high cost of maintaining them reliably, or, as is undoubtably the case given Stoddarts European history, the even higher costs of repairing them after the fact. This guy is demonstrating to you, as he did with Minardi (and in particular the debacle during the 2005 MEL grand prix) that he does not outlay a single cent in strategic planning. He will only spend if he has to and if he can get around that he will. Read the history of European.
Absurdly you applaud him for being smart in starting with these crappy 737-200's to prove that the model works and then upgrading later. You can't save your way to success. This very strategy will be his undoing. When the product (cabin) starts to look tatty (that'll take about a month), and reliability starts to bite, and the punters who travel on OZJET to send a message to QF realise the reality, then this little venture will struggle. And a la Godfrey during the first few years of
VB Stoddart will be out in the media bleeting and moaning about how the poor Aussie battler is getting a rough ride.
All I hope is that their existence is brief; and that their inevitable failure is quick and painless for all the staff involved, unlike the poor bastards in European who have been dragged through the Stoddart circus for years.