I actually have an MBA and was lectured at endless lengths about economics and by business "leaders", some of which remain out of jail to this day.
The trouble is guys, there is a name for what you want when you say: "Qantas is a special case", "Qantas is different", "Aviation markets are different".
The technical economic name is "rent seeking behaviour" or as a Ministers staff would put it "special pleading".
Now all of you are correct when you say that no market is perfect, but you neatly miss the point of the argument; that is that the more perfect the free market, the better the price and the more efficient it is, and the more beneficial to the economy it is. I'm afraid that you cannot escape this.
Furthermore, and with great respect, the more shrill you become about how Qantas is different, how your competitors are subsidised by Government etc., etc, the sillier you sound.
Take cars for an example again. There is a world wide glut of car manufacturing capacity. Cars like Ssang Yong, Hyundai, Proton and god knows what else are selling for next to no profit at all. Now do you see people passing up these cheap cars to buy a Holden or a Falcon? Of course not! That would be stupid! Buy the cheap car and spend the money elsewhere in the economy! I think it was John Nash (They made a film about him - A Beautiful Mind) who won the Nobel Prize for Economics by proving that everyone was better off by free trade.
It is axiomatic that everybody benefits from cheaper and more efficient production. Arguing anything less is just plain stupid and will get you absolutely nowhere.Furthermore the entire Australian economy, with the exception of Telstra and Qantas, has had to go through the process of coping with international competition and its about time it was your turn- its only fair. Do I see you guys turn down the $99.00 Chinese generator at Bunnings in favour of buying the $600.00 Australian equivalent? Nah!
To put it yet another way, would I pay $30.00 for a pizza when I can go to a shop a few blocks away and pay $6.00 for the same pizza, and, since your leaders and the likes of Ryanair think air travel is a commodity just like wheat or oil or iron ore, what do you expect? If Singapore or Calathumpia will sell us air travel for less than the cost of production then we are fools not to take it. We can always rebuild an airline if the price of travel rises above the investment necessary to own another Australian airline and the free market will ensure that there will be many companies eager to sell us the tools for "Qantas II"
The only possible justification for protecting Qantas in some form is National defence capability ---but of course Qantas is shooting down that argument by outsourcing its maintenance and overhaul facilities isn't it?
And I'm waiting for someone to say there is something "special" about Qantas. There was something "special" about Ansett and you gladly watched that go to the wall. Why shouldn't you get exactly the same fate or worse?