Qantas' woes are directly proportional to the rollout of the A380.
It's a fantastic aircraft when it's full, and it's got less than 8 hours fuel in it. It is not suited to the routes Qantas are using it on.
It will be a great long haul aircraft when it's stretched.
If I were running Qantas I'd be right now utilizing the strenghts of what it has. Flying the dugong to Singapore and running frequency to europe with its A330s.
Flying the dugong to a staging point for north america such as Hawaii from Sydney/Melbourne/ brisbane and A330s direct to San Fran, JFK, Dallas, And LA. Or reverse, A330 to Hawaii and the dugong onwards.
Slowly replace the 330s with 787s and send them to domestic to replace the 767s.
747s supplementing point to point on non ETOPS routes.
It's time for them to think outside the box. They waste ****loads of fuel carrying it in the dugong. How about working out how to hub it from sub 8 hour sectors and fill it!
Go on Joyce, be a leader and get the troops behind you. They will follow and forgive if you lead and take them with you.