Capt Claret I have to disagree a little with what you are saying. Joe Bloggs was buying a ticket on Ansett Aust. and one day he couldn't use it because it wasn't there anymore because for whatever reasons Air NZ elected to leave it alone. Another Joe Bloggs was also buying a ticket on QF NZ and same thing happened. Either way, in spite of damage to their reputations from refusing to financially support either airline both elected to walk away. You could argue that as it was a franchise QF wasn't obliged but it hadn't put in a dime yet whereas Air NZ had coughed up plenty for Ansett Aust. and the capital injection required for QFNZ would have been far less. Or maybe, because of the competition Air NZ provides in NZ, Qantas didn't like the odds and prefer it when they have a huge chunk of the market to start with. Now they carry sod all people in NZ and fly maintrunk where they see fit but have eliminated any large financial commitment. And Air NZ carry sod all people in Aust and have also eliminated any large financial commitment. I was going to also mention that pilot groups in both airlines thought they were earning a meagre tuppence and that the end result was massive job losses all round. Numerically fewer in NZ of course but towns like Christchurch were pretty badly hit when it folded. And both unions blame poor management and will always do so.
