Wirraway...
I’m not sure if you work within QF but some of your assertions are flawed .Yes, public companies are responsible to their shareholders however; QF is making record profits and given the number of aircraft we operate is arguably the most profitable airline in the world, especially when most other airlines are making a loss.
There are a lot of execs on other boards who would love to be on the QF board and be able to claim responsibility for our profit .The big picture of global aviation as you put it is full of airlines that are inefficient and have poor strategies, this is not the case at Qantas.
I’m sure that if Emirates were to offer a 800 seat all Y/C A380 on long haul sectors pax would fly once and vow never again .If it was feasible to operate a 800 seat version then our esteemed leader would have done so, in fact the Qantas A380 has just under 500 seats. Qantas will be squeezing as many seats as it can into any aircraft it gets.
The arguments here are about the way QF works with its employees or more correctly the fact that it does not. Regardless of the fact that we are making record profits the company is continually chipping away at its employees conditions while at the same time giving bonus’s to the few. If a company decides that its employees are its greatest asset and works with them then with a reasonable strategy it will flourish. Qantas could be so much greater if it only worked with us instead of the opposite.
I do not understand the logic in your statement that GD has to shave 3 billion to keep QF in the black If QF was making a loss, then by all means it would have to put in place a series of cost cutting measures but we are not. It does not take a lot of skill to slash costs, just a thick skin however, it does take skill to motivate your employees, design new products and implement them and that is something that has been lacking from the QF board for some time
VB has been known to be opportunistic when making announcements before and this one our 85 th birthday is probably another one.