Can I suggest that the difference is the cost structure!
David1300, I guess you don't get it - the staff have known for a long time that Qantas mainline (in particular QF International) have been paying for a lot of Jetstar's operating costs, this is why their cost structure appears lower than the opposition. In reality, the cost of leasing aircraft is no lower than it is for the legacy airlines, the price of fuel is the same, airport charges & taxes are the same, so it comes down to staff costs. If you believe management, those nasty mainline staff are lazy & overpaid but what they don't mention is their actions to make the staff appear that way. In the case of Ramp, Baggage and Engineering staff who used to have contracts performing work for other airlines, management put the rate up by a factor of three so that forced these airlines to go elsewhere for those services. In the case of pilots, yes they are woefully underutilised because so much flying has been gifted to Jetstar or routes simply shutdown. This excess is currently being managed by assigning Annual Leave & Long Service Leave because they don't want the financial hit of Voluntary Redundancy or Compulsory Redundancy (which is how they dealt with excess numbers of Cabin Crew). Meanwhile the Jetstar pilots who have been gifted this huge amount of flying are working maximum hours and consequently their A330 captains are earning in excess of $100,000 more than their mainline counterparts.
Wrt cost structure, Qantas mainline would love to compete on a level playing field, ie not being burdened by some of Jetstar's Direct Operating Costs. The average load factor for QF International has been over 80% during the last 12 months. That load factor normally results in a healthy profit but management advised the ASX that International was making a massive loss - it doesn't add up and the only thing that I can put it down to is:
creative accounting to achieve an industrial outcome. We are at war with our management because we can see what is really happening and we know what lies they are telling the media, ASX, shareholders, staff, customers, etc.
The only way Qantas will survive is a total change of management - Boston Bruce has gone, just Joyce and Clifford to go next.