DM you are either naive or stupid I'm not sure which, if you had the foresight to do a little basic fact gathering before you put fingers to keyboard, you may have tempered your comments.
The airlines are hurting - oh dear how sad with Q and
JS still posting
profits (note that last word profits that means that they are taking in more money than they are paying out - got that). And the big V still hasn't posted a loss, most of the 400 jobs that will go will be by natural attrition.
If you want AsA to lower their charges then get the airlines to lobby the government to stop AsA paying the government a dividend (like that would happen - when was the last time a government did something like that)
BTW the charges are set in consultation with the airlines and with the blessing of the Aust Competition Commission (or what ever it is called) and were set for 5 years. So blame the government and if the Airlines are hurting so much they would be lobbying the government so loudly that even the laziest and most regurgitative reporter would be cuting and pasting some of their
PR output into his/her articles.
As for
CHIP IN FOR YOUR COUNTRY!
what do you think ATC have been doing for the last 10 years tiddlywinks - they took a hit for 9/11 and the demise of Ansett - they did the "right thing" during the SARS epidemic and in the last CA they were threatened with the most draconian work place legislation since the Pit Ponies were afforded a better life than the mine workers and their children.
Enough of my venting my spleen - you truly prove the old adage that
A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING