Ka Boom - with respect, it's not Qantas's fault the 78's are delayed. Remember, they'd be flying by now and Qantas would be phasing out their ageing 76's. Also, considering a number of other airlines around the world, fleet age isn't that bad...there are plenty of legacy airlines operating some seriously old hull's
With regards to network reduction; do you believe it makes business sense to operate on markets where the return either below acceptable or not at all? I would be terribly concerned as a shareholder if Qantas was operating routes that were not delivering a return - Qantas would be better off redeploying on to markets where they can deliver returns...It's a sad fact, but you just cannot deliver returns on every market (and FCO was a good example), just look at V...pulling out of HKT/JNB etc, why, because they cannot delivery an appropriate return. Does that make V a bad business? Because technically that equates to network reductions in the same light you've applied to Qantas...Absolutely not.
Qantas has a cost base and it needs to work within that cost base. One way of reducing that cost based in achieving cost reductions and then by delivering a lower cost base, thin, marginal markets may become viable and enable Qantas to operate and compete...
Qantas is investing in its product - you're very aware of the 744 refits, improvements with lounges network-wide, innovative technologies with new gen check-in as well as a number of other investment programs to improve the product and deliver a competitive business for consumers.
At the end of the day, Qantas is still rated as a high-tier operator and this is supported by their position in the top 10 airlines globally as well as winners with their Y+ product (Skytrax) and considering the numbers of operators out there, Qantas is not too bad at all...
Qantas is still an innovator and delivers a product that sits in the the top bracket of carriers globally - you cannot deny that. Sure, there is some lag in some areas i.e. a number of ageing fleet types, but Qantas has committed to fleet investment and that's quite obvious as per the order books for both short-haul and long-haul.
And if you have a chance to see the MPS scores for Qantas, you'd be surprised to see how well they rate and are received by customers.