Ramius:
The one question I always ask when reading your posts Sunfish is "why is it that someone who apparently rose to the upper echelons of management feels the need to post 4385 times on an anonymous bulletin board?"
Dear Ramius, I thought the answer was obvious - because I can, and as a very junior private pilot I learn a bit here and there, very occasionally I can provide a different. and perhaps useful, perspective from a different point of view from the cockpit.
I have been through these "Partnerships" three times before, once I even had the hilarious task of negotiating one. There is always a senior partner and a junior partner. They all open with bonding sessions, nice country resort strategy conferences, professions of undying love, pictures of a beautiful future together and honeyed words about how this is a "win/win" situation, as a corporate lawyer aptly put it "The flowers and chocolates stage".
Unfortunately Mr. Clarke has a business to run, and once the ink is dry on the various agreements, he will depart, leaving you to the tender mercies of the various Emirates managers that Qantas must engage with as Qantas middle management get told to "make this partnership work..or else". At this point the blood starts to be shed because the Board of Qantas, and Alan Joyce will be talking shared facilities, cost savings by reducing duplication, etc. and making life a living hell for middle management as they try to avoid their little empires being swallowed by the Emirates octopus.
Pretty soon Qantas management, trying to reach decisions, finds themselves always asking "what will Emirates think"? Pretty soon strategic paralysis sets in - "What will we do about this? What does Emirates think? How can we make this decision without asking Emirates?" It eventually dawns on management that they are captured. It doesn't dawn on the Board until later - after the aforementioned fireside chat by the Two Chairman, because middle and senior management in the junior partner are too scared for their own jobs to tell the boss what their "partners" are doing to them, and the business.
To put that another way, Emirates business interests are not the same as Qantas business interests and will eventually diverge, even if they do appear parallel right now.
For example, Emirates is based in Dubai - what happens to Qantas when, not if, there is another geopolitical explosion in the Middle East? What happens when the Shia in Saudi arc up, let alone their brothers on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz? Thought about that one Alan?
To be fair, it is possible that the Government may put conditions on the deal that preserve some Qantas infrastructure in Australia, but those will be honored in the breach because the Australian Government doesn't have the tools or experience necessary to make them stick.
All I can say is: you poor kids having this wished on you, the only thing worse is bankruptcy.