runesta..
I assume that you are an outsider looking in and that is fair enough but you probably have not seen the way events have unfolded over the last 20 years or so. I may be wrong of course...
To be a Qantas Pilot or Engineer used to be held in a much higher regard by those who ran the company. A quality product and service was delivered (and still is despite the repeated attempts by successive management groups to undermine such) by highly trained and utterly professional people.
For a long while now the company has sought to systematically dismember the organisation in the pursuit of the mighty dollar.
In the not too distant past, Sydney was the epicenter of widebody heavy maintenance in Australia. We had world class people producing a world class product. The extent of our engineering expertise ranged from machining to plating to structural repairs to engine overhaul, not to mention three lines of aircraft heavy maintenance. We had contract work with other operators (Air Pacific, Air NZ, Evergreen, Polar, Asiana, Air Canada to name a few) and the RAAF and ad-hoc work was often on the menu. Our capability was second to none..
However, slowly but surely, parts of the operation were farmed off, considered unnecessary or inappropriate or uneconomical to remain in Sydney.
Now, there are no more lines of heavy maintenance in Sydney, no fitting and machining capability, no real engine maintenance facilities to speak of. Our landing gear, wheels and brakes, engine, APU and thrust reverser overhauls have been outsourced and Sydney is but a shell of it's former self. Oh, we have a you-beaut automated stores warehouse which works pretty well when we actually have parts in stock..
And yet the spirit is still there, in the people, who work day and night, 365 days of the year, rain, hail or shine to deliver a quality product.
They say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. That may be so, but we're trying our damnedest to.
And as for SP's credentials in running and managing an airline? I can't say. All I know is that he is a highly trained Engineer with a couple of decades of experience in the industry and not some johnny-come-lately with a few new business school buzz words in his vocabulary. And let it be said that Engineers suffer fools lightly.