Interesting perspective - Qantas shows Air Canada who's boss
Qantas shows Air Canada who's boss | Ken Phillips | Commentary | Business Spectator
Qantas shows Air Canada who's boss
"Mayhem erupted across Canadian airports with flight cancellations stranding some 24,000 customers, many who were unable to get their luggage for up to ten hours. Passenger anger resulted in confrontations with Air Canada employees with one employee being spat on, an event that symbolised what Canadians think of their national carrier.
The entire (unresolved) dispute has strong parallels to the Qantas dispute of 2011 with one massive difference. Air Canada management has lost control of its management capacity. Events control it rather than management controlling events. In comparison, through its temporary closing down of the airline, Alan Joyce at Qantas showed that management is running Qantas.
Qantas management have had firm control for a long time. Their 2004 move to start up Jetstar, as a low cost subsidiary carrier competing directly with Qantas has been their saviour. Jetstar has enabled them to take on domestic and international budget airlines and win.
I’ve previously observed that 'Qantas’ is headed to primarily becoming a marketing and brand manager of airlines (Qantas' final destination, October 14, 2011). Jetstar's newly announced expansion into the Japanese and Chinese domestic markets reinforces this. Expect to see Qantas international primarily reduced to the Australia-London and Australia-LA routes.
Where Qantas has Jetstar, Air Canada has failed to kick start a similar ambition for an Air Canada owned, low budget airline. Air Canada unions don’t want the budget airline and have worked hard to block the start up. Now Air Canada is being cannibalised by an increasingly popular domestic low cost carrier, Westjet. Qantas responded to the challenge from Virgin with Jetstar. Air Canada has failed to respond and is suffering the consequences."
A few interesting points in this piece...
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