Airline veteran Rod Eddington praises Joyce's 'bold move' | The Australian
"It's a tough gig. But this is the best way to give it a go.
"If there's an easy place to do business in Asia, everyone would have piled into it some time ago.
"Good on Qantas for giving it a go, but you might not bet your pension that they'll be successful.
"It's one thing to have the capital; it's quite another to have people who can go in and set up on the ground in Asia, recruit the right local people there, compete with local companies, and be prosperous and profitable."
However, "most of the time our banks have got their fingers burnt when they've gone into the region", Sir Rod warned.
There were two ideas behind Qantas's move, he said. "First, it can't get a competitive cost base here in Australia that allows it to compete in Asia."
The core international routes probably lost about $200 million a year, but that was recouped several times over from the domestic market, "which makes it good money", he said.
The second driver was that "if you can't grow in Asia by taking your Australian business into there, the alternative is to set up in Asia and fly from there into Australia and elsewhere".
If the plan is so obvious from the outside perspective, it's a wonder the truth just won't be told in the first place. I like the last quote from Sir Rod
However, he issued a warning: "This will create the biggest dust-up with unions in some time."