To my mind the 'transformation" of the Qantas brand is at the behest of the Board. It is the board that appoints the CEO and it is the board that ensures the CEO is taking the product where the board thinks it should go.
For my money it is not the current CEO who's steering the ship, he's just the monkey, you need to look at the organ grinder to find out who has the plan.
When Ansett died Qantas where in a remarkable position with staggering opportunity for company growth and shareholder wealth, looking at the Qantas of today one could not help but think that only a deliberate and systematic destruction of the brand in a deliberate attempt to negate the unions and their demands must have been made. I can only guess but the boards background of non union negation must have played a part in their longer term thinking.
They had a 'vision' for Qantas that did not included accepted Australian wages and conditions, the only way to bypass those conditions was to bypass the Qantas brand and invent another airline with a methodology and cost base more sympathetic to the boards ideal.
If we had Chapter 11 in Australia then I'm sure the board would have taken that option as demonstrated by their peers in the US.
Last edited by Flyingblind; 29th Mar 2012 at 07:53.