Breaky Burrito. According to my source, who I can't reveal but is right in the thick of it, is that the heavy maintenance costs for the A320 will be borne by J* this financial year and it will come off their bottom line. He said approx 50 mill.You're right about the long term cost differential however it does not change the fact of a major profit downgrade for J*. The most interesting fact was that the costs can't be apportioned to Qantas.
My source confirms this info as well.
I always find some truth in the adage 'rats deserting the ship'. In the case of Qantas you only need to look at the volume of managers that have hightailed it in the past 8 months to get an idea of the 'inner health' of the organisation and commonsense tells you all is not well.
A lot of the issues at QF stem from
short term decisions made by managers who 'live for today and don't think about tomorrow'. 8 years of this has come to a head, pure and simple. You can't make short term moves that will be a success for 2 years but then turn into a loss after the honeymoon period has ended. This is part of their problem, they have been doing this for so long and it has caught up with them.
QF has decimated it's workforce by giving technical experience in all fields the flick, inadequately oversighting/managing outsouced business sections, and the biggest mistake of all (albeit a complex problem) is - Allowing it's reputation for safety and service implode into a brown steaming mess. Senior people have clearly misunderstood and completely overlooked 2 key areas of revenue. Safety sells seats and service sells seats.
The level of arrogance and unjustifiable salaries is a further display of either stupidity or pure greed, maybe both. I find it amazing that if (by miracle) an Australian banking institute has a profit downgrade or comes up short of the shareholders expectations either the CEO's and CFO's heads role, or in the least they have their salaries cut and bonuses removed...Not in avaiation, a loss of profit and profit downgrade results in payrises, fat bonuses and other wallet filling schemes.
Then again anybody investing their money into airlines that operate in a high risk environment with thin margins deserves to watch the CEO's racking up millions as a reward for destroying the company.
Qantas may have ridden out the 'GFC' of 2008-2010 which saw around $900 000 000 disapear in a nanosecond but you have to remember that was only the first bubble to burst. Wait til the mother of all bubbles bursts....