Going Boeing,using your economic aviation model we will be losing London and Frankfurt as well.
At least you've admitted that cost is the biggest factor apart from the politics.
The real problem is the business market.Like Athens,Rome,Belgrade and the other destinations we have given way the common factor is a business market.If the main market is tourism and that means economy why operate a legacy airline when you can operate your LCC with overall lower cost including lower crew costs?
Even if there is a reasonable business market potential the crew costs with QF are still higher than Jetstar.In the book 'The Men who killed Qantas' I think it was Hudson Fysh who mentioned that upper management and the board were jealous of the pay that QF's pilots got.
That is one of the reasons why Jetstar was created especially after AO did not quite get the savings required.
If you look at the difference between AO and Jetstar,what were the biggest differences on costing?
AO used QF tech crew and older less fuel efficient aircraft with tired interiors.
Jetstar uses cheaper pilots with newer fuel efficient aircraft with new interiors.
I hope Going Boeing is wrong because if they cannot get crew costs down compared to jetstar then QF is doomed because they will set up QF lite in Singapore or BKK and QF Australia will end up only flying out of and back into Australia.
There goes London,frankfurt,New York and with it Qantas history.