Keg,
I said 600, not 500. I do not have their exact start date, I just know the 20 year mark has been passed. From the 2 month roster that was discussed, I was at work for about the same amount of time they were at home over a 2 month period.
The The,
Those numbers for Jetstar look about right, they are in line with other LCCs. LCCs work by moving lots of passengers, for minimum costs, and charge them for extras everywhere. Jetstar offer fares very similar to Virgin, and with a lower cost base, I think they are making money. It is not like they are flying around empty and charging nothing. I do not know enough about the overseas operations to comment in detail, however staff costs should be a lot lower than Australia, fuel cost should be better, and the cost of leasing the aircraft probably would be higher than planned with the historically high AUD.
The difference between the legacy (QF) and LCC (Jetstar) is in the same as IATA has reported in Europe. Easyjet earns about 35% less, and Ryanair about 55% less per ASK than legacy carriers, that has not stopped them from being very profitable despite being in a higher cost environment than Australia. It also has not stopped the some legacy carriers from succeeding, at the same time a lot have failed while the LCCs have flourished.
Virgin has carved a large market share in Australia, they have not done so with the highest yields in the market, they have done it with a good product at a reasonable price, that is reliable. So many time I hear now of QF staff flying full fare on Virgin domestically, even international you have QF staff traveling on other airlines over staff travel on QF.
I see a lot of QF people snivel or complain in a peevish, self-pitying way about how Jetstar is taking over their flying and routes. I think you will find where the real value was ripped out of the QF domestic network has been the expansion of Virgin, they have taken volume AND yield. Having the highest yield is nothing, if your market share is declining, that goes for international and domestic.
Tankengine,
100 hrs a month is not worldwide, you are allowed to do over double that in some countries in commercial operations. I have done 80 hrs in 10 sectors so far this month with 4 days off.