I believe Singapore Airlines (SQ) have left their run too late.
Market share has fallen the way of QF (although
VB has taken a slice and continues to slowly erode that away) and the icing on the cake - business contracts - have been tied up by QF for a number of years.
For any carrier to that loses customer patronage they know they have to work twice as hard to get it back.
The opportunity to start up a domestic operation or take over Ansett's carcass without the associated debt has presented itself a few times over.
Now SACL have purchased the jewel in the AN crown - the Sydney Airport terminal and QF and
VB shall pay to use this facility.
The AOC would now be worthless probably in realistic terms (besides - didn't SQ have there own Australian AOC I read on this forum some time back?) and the engineering facility will shortly be sold off.
It's now almost nine months since AN collapsed and the dust has long settled.
Is it really worth a company to spend billions of dollars to attempt to capture a meagre slice of the market?