SQ won't be buying seriously into Air NZ any time soon.
The most likely scenario is for SQ to have some sort of commercial tie up with Virgin and QF to buy into Air NZ.
This would still mean a "new" full service carrier. But it would be tied commercially to Virgin. This would be QF's worst nightmare, having to compete once again on a more level playing field.
The other advantage of this scenario is that any issues over terminal access would evaporate, with Virgin and the "full service" carrier sharing gates Australia wide.
It would leave Virgin Blue intact as a low cost operation, but with the capacity to expand and compete directly against QF's Australian Airlines as it unfolds it's domestic network next year.
Corrigan can see huge dollars in this. Why was he in Singapore recently? You can bet it wasn't just to see the sights.
The doctor will aslo be fairly keen to retire with at least one successful deal under his belt.
