You are absolutely right, B A Lert.
Qantas Management would know best what its cost base truly is.
And it would also know best how to misrepresent, obfuscate, deceive, manipulate, and fudge its cost base figures to suit its own argument, just as it knows very well how to hide a $1 million invoice for Jetstar International away-base servicing/parts in Qantas (non-Jetstar) accounts. Qantas Management knows how to do a lot of things, Lert - not all of them entirely honourable.