Darkness:
Perhaps it would appear that Qantas is trying to become just a seller of tickets - airlines don't actually WANT to operate aircraft, they just want to sell tickets and market themselves.
This is the failed American "Internet Bubble" business model. We sit around our Board table drinking Scotch or wine. We own a brand. We own a website that sells stuff. We contract out delivery of what we sell to "fulfilment companies" who package and deliver the stuff our website sells.....
The only trouble with this model is that a brand and website don't add value to anything at all. All the value adding is done by the contractors - and after a while they decide to keep the value for themselves, if they create any value at all.
To put it another way, outsourced businesses don't ever go that "extra mile" for the consumer. There will be no more stories about wonderful Qantas staff.