I have to be honest - as a member of the 'general public' and also part of the business community there's two things I take into considering when choosing flights:
1. timeliness ie. depart/arrive on time +15 mins; and
2. reliability ie. I want all my take offs to = my landings without any dramas.
Unfortunately Qantas has lost a lot of its reliability. There's only one way to regain that reliability and thats to NOT have so many engine failures (I use that term loosely). I actually believe
VB has a better reliability record than QF and so do a lot of people that I talk to on flights.
Someone needs to do something to rebuild this reputation and soon. Maybe the fact that QF operates older a/c or untested a/c is a factor, I don't know. (and before I get flamed, I'm not an engineer or whatever - this is just my perception as a paying customer) but something has to be done. If I were BG, I'd be kicking butts in Engineering. If Mark Webber's car keeps breaking down, do you kick Mark Webber?
Thats my $1k worth (or whatever I've paid for travel over the last few weeks).