My father flew for QF from the mid 60s until retiring in 1987. He still keeps abreast of the goings on and recently we were discussing QF's current travails - he can give numerous examples of routes that were cancelled in the 60s and 70s and 80s which were ALWAYS chocker block full. The company I work for is about to do the same thing and make a bunch of us redundant. Cancel a route that feeds another route with 280+ pax EVERY time...and they think they will still be flying the later route without the feeder route
I think, no I am sure, the last company I worked for that had REALLY good management was Talair. Dad's view is that QF have NEVER had good management at the top.
Example: Why doesn't QF have 777s? Because the company wouldn't have been attractive to APA.