All this hype about profit margins, cost base and low cost carriers is a load of bunkum.
Virgin is a one-brand carrier with no LCC off-shoot and is doing very well in both tourist and business parts of the business. QANTAS has JQ which is gutting it. JQ is made to be the saviour of QANTAS, when in fact it is white-anting it from within. If JQ is taken out of the equation, QANTAS domestic will have all the JQ passengers. Who else are the punters going to fly with? Tiger? Virgin? QANTAS domestic (if you were to include JQ) would have a virtual monopoly on the domestic market. Virgin could not pick up the slack that quick and Tiger has no hope of gaining a real market share within the Australian domestic market as it currently stands.
From the beginning is was slated that JQ would not compete directly with a QF domestic flight. Guess what? They are. SYD-MEL, SYD-BNE, etc. Where they're not competing, QF have surrendered the sector to JQ and they are now doing the "tourist" destinations such as Coolangatta, Mackay, Maroochydore etc.