Personally, I grieve for the lost jobs at AN, particularly for the friends I made in the RAAF when I visited Edinburgh for Fincastle who went on to fly for AN. It's an emotion I share with every pilot I speak to, so don't try and tar me with the charge of having gloated (or whatever) when those jobs were lost. As for AN itself, I'm not sure we should grieve at all, as the body appeared nearly a corpse and the management on the scene - AN and AirNZ - were clearly not up to the job.
I do feel that a lot of AN posters live on in denial. Not many would accept that, as the pilot is the last person able to avert an accident, he bears
total responsibility for not having done so. Now apply that statement to the AirNZ involvement with AN: it's hard make the same linkage isn't it?
The white knight theory also gets a workout, so let's have a look at
http://xtramsn.co.nz/business/0,,5008-1355564,00.html. It's an interesting, and not too personally biassed, look at why, perhaps, management - again AirNZ and AN - weren't able to do what they wanted. For me, the main points would be:
1. QF's willingness to lobby the Australian government to screw the scrum. (Good for them, it's looking after oneself.)
2. The relative willingness of the respective Oz/NZ governments to confront some ticklish national-interest issues surrounding the airlines involved. (And don't get me started on the NZ government's contrasting ability to address the national-interest issues surrounding a credible defence force).
3. The conditions put on the sale of AN by the FIRB. I'd guess that these were reasonable within the AN/QF duopoly, but set the weaker of the two - AN - up for a fall when Virgin arrived.
4. The relaxation of the duopoly immediately after the AN purchase - timing is everything.
5. SQ's performance (?) as a shareholder.
6. The lingering question over the groundings. Did some disaffected AN staff kick an own goal.
7. The continuing vulnerability of the current AirNZ within the wider Australasian market. It's why this sorry mess kicked off, and our Helen's statement that: 'AirNZ has been profitable in the past and we don't see any reason why it can't be again' only goes to show that she wasn't listening.
Just a coupla thoughts to keep this one going.....