I find it very hard to believe that Dixon would allow the shepherds to manage all trans-Tas ops. That's amazing.That is also more bad news for Qantas pilots as services will be cut and flown by the velcro glove clan. Where does Australian Airlines fit in with this? Could it come into play later? I see Alan Fels(Geoff's best mate) wont retire for long enough to hopefully stop this one. Anyone who believes this is good for competition must work in management. The AN saga,operations wise at least, should demonstrate that the antiquated methods used by the Kiwis will fail dismally against Virgin when they start. I cant help but see this as a good thing for Virgin. I think the best thing would be to use the example of the three way struggle that we had in Australia which brought AN down and Geoff should use his muscle to bring AirNZ down and then deal with Virgin from an even stronger position. I cant see the Kiwi government putting any more cash in and if QF drove them to the wall Geoff might be lucky and get another 1$ offer for the lot!