The attacks coincided with the collapse of Ansett, which, although it theoretically delivered Qantas a free meal in the profitable Australian domestic market, became a major challenge in itself.
Picking up much of Ansett's 35 per cent or so market share overnight was nigh impossible.
In the vacuum, the previously faltering low-cost Virgin Blue took the opportunity to expand quickly, catching Qantas off guard.
Harbison knows Jack Sh!t. Following Ansett's collapse, the Federal Government leant on Dixon and said that Qantas would not be allowed to have more than 70% share of the domestic market. Even though Qantas had the cash to put the screws on Virgin, they had to limit capacity to allow DJ to grow. This was most obvious during the SARS crisis as Qantas had reduced their international services and thus had aircraft & crew available tothrow at the domestic market. They didn't do this because of the instructions from the PM's department. Brett Godfrey can't claim to be a great CEO when he was gifted 30% of the market.