Originally Posted by
longjohn
...But if the route has been succesful in the budget market under the Jetstar brand, why would they move it into the mainline brand which is perceived as higher cost?
because at the end of the day, this whole big exercise (a ten year plan if you like) is to bring Qantas down to a standard where they are almost unbeatable on price, yet still keep the Qantas Branding.
Jetstar passengers have shown (by flying Jetstar at the start) that they dont care what the airline is called, they just want a cheap and regular way to get from A to B.
Qantas has a huge amount of goodwill throughout the entire WORLD - my prediction? Once the QF board have downsized the mainline old schoolers who are on extortionate pay scales and conditions, and have the majority of their QF workforce as MAM - they will simply rebrand Jetstar back into the qantas livery, with all the 'service' that jetstar currently offers. More likely,they will just offer all the remaining QF crew the option of taking the current JQ EBAs or becoming a Casual. Then, once Qantas has again reinvented itself, and significantly reduced its cost structure so dramatically, it will start a NEW low cost carrier which will, by that time be able to undercut even the cheapest JQ fares. Really, how else, if you were QF management, could you significantly reduce the entire airlines cost structure in such a short amount of time without losing goodwill from the passengers?
remember, its only the staff that seem to hate management (QF AND JQ) - the passengers couldnt give a ****!