Qantas could have had a magnificent future and produced excellent returns if it had innovated its way ahead instead of going the cost cutting route.
Jetstar is a farce, period. Jetstar Asia is a mistake, period. That business strategy of competing against yourself via jetstar is old. The name for it in business circles is "pissing in the soup" because it
devalues the entire brand.
No one I know will fly Qantas
anywhere by choice. This is partially due to mainline unreliability, partially due to the possibility that your itinerary may require you to fly a leg with Jetstar - something that people try and avoid, and partially because so many itineraries require a plane change at either Sydney or Brisbane which are nightmares because the international and domestic terminals are not co located.
Even my son, of the swinging Twenty something Iphone generation has had enough "jetstar is sh1t" was his final comment after a flight was cancelled on him, after he had checked his bags and couldn't retrieve them so that he could buy a
VB ticket instead.
You could have had it all...
1. Get the head office the **** out of central Sydney and shove it in a warehouse somewhere near the airport. That could have been combined with putting an axe through head office staff numbers.
You need a flat structure where decisions are made at the lowest level possible. "Group General managers? Executive general managers?? In a pissy little Australian company????"
2. Get heavy maintenance out of Sydney and put it some place cheaper.
3.
Stop hubbing through Sydney and lengthening flight times for everyone who doesn't live in Sydney. We want direct flights!
4. The B787? Was there an engineer on the Board? The first carbon fibre airliner? And you
risked the entire future of the business on the technical success of ONE aircraft type??????.....Oh, make that Two, I forgot the A380.
5. Starting cost cutting wars with your own employees? That's very bright. Don't you understand that an employee can affect your bottom line much faster than the Board can? Don't you undestand that every disaffected customer tells about Seven others of their rotten expereince? Its called word of mouth advertising.
6. Innovation? "Only Boards innovate." - ask Margaret Jackson. Pity your product is stale.
But keep going like you are. Wait until the next economic downturn and watch all those price sensitive Jetstar customers vanish like snow in the desert. Then where will you be? Wait until their is civil disturbance in the country where your MRO is based.
Boards are supposed to manage risk. By the time it is obvious that Qantas has not managed its risks, it will be too late. The RR A380 debacle was your final warning.