Irish wrecking crew
The so called sale of Qantas by Geoff started the demise, financial down grades and the formation of LCC. Hide all set up costs within the main group, pull of routes to grow the LCC. Hand over aircraft initially purchased to improve /upgrade domestic travel ( oops wrong type didn't read the fine print A330 - 200 long haul not suitable for short stuff).
Line up pay money for new types A380 & 787 - we've all seen the results of that decision, grounded after failure and can't get off the ground.
Every time AJ opens his mouth these days and mentions iconic brand he relates to Ansett. As CEO shouldn't he use this as a model of what not to do, but he seems hell bent on putting his feet in the foot prints left in the ashes.
Could his predecessors have made poor aircraft choices - YES.
Okay how much will it cost to continue down this path as opposed to bail out and get the right aircraft ?
The Sunstate **** fight started because we wanted an extra 1.3% more than they wanted to pay and 1 week extra holidays for the permanent night shift engineers. Which other operators/industries give quite happily.
QLink have now decided to cut the workforce from 37 engineers a little over 12 months ago to 10 LAME's and an undisclosed number of AME's, T/A's. This at probably one of the busiest turnaround hubs in the regional market. Obviously the aircraft will be maintained so thoroughly by the 3rd party maintenance that they will never breakdown coming or going from this port. Birds will not get in the way of these aircraft and lightning will not hit them.
Plus more aircraft coming.