The above Journalists seem to have missed the fact that BA and QF both need to attract lots of fresh capital to concurrently reequip and come out of the aftermath of the GFC profitable enough to fend off the continued growth of LCC's.
To get the necessary investment, suspect they are going to have to come up with business plans attractive to investors typically sceptical of airlines.
Fortunately there are business models out there that don’t pit capital against labour and/or Australia against other countries, which would provide as yet untapped synergies, but thus far there is no public evidence that these kinds of globalisation strategies are getting the traction they deserve.
There is a lot more at risk than reducing career opportunity for pilots, which is but a worrying symptom of the airlines collective inability to attract capital at competitive rates.
Nevertheless, no reason not to continue to live in hope. As someone said on Q&A last night, in the new Federal Parliament, national decisions, like changes to the Qantas Sale Act, will no longer be made in back rooms between Ministers & Lobbyists.
Bugger the Empire Snoopy, long live the Independents and their potential to stop the off shoring of Australia’s aviation industry.