DH Driver
I am aware of the squabbles that occured between CASA and the Buchanan family but all the evidence does indicate that Virgin & Impulse did take revenue away from the Regional operators during that period of unrealistic air fares - During that period, the QF regional operations (which previously and subsequently traded in the black) lost approx $65 million.
Jetcare was set up by Dennis to take on external maintenance contracts and to reduce his exposure wrt Flight West. The quality of workmanship from Jetcare was not up to an acceptable standard so in the last twelve months of its operation, Flight West sent a large number of components to other maintenance organisations in order to maintain aircraft serviceability. Virgin are also having problems with Jetcare which has resulted in DJ being unable to fly the most recently deliverd B737 - CASA blocked its operation based on insufficient numbers of ground engineers and inadequate maintenance systems. DJ and Jetcare have had discussions recently which has left DJ with no choice but to spend a lot of money setting up their own maintenance facility. This could have gone to Melbourne in the old AN hangar, but Peter Beattie has offered "incentives" for it to be based at BNE airport (or maybe even Maroochydore). As Jetcare has no other significant contracts, this leaves them in a vulnerable position.
I agree with your statement that DJ have done more good than harm since starting up in Brissie, but I wish that it had not been at the expence of Flight West and Ansett.