Told yer so. Qantas has been "in play" since before the APA bid.
The assets these guys see are:
1) The brand name.
2) The cash flow.
3) The slots and airside real estate (that stops market entry by others).
4) The Chairmans lounge and Qantas superlative lobbying ability with both sides of Government. (ties also to #1)
5) The huge political power inherent in manipulating schedules to the benefit of certain capital cities and the detriment of others.
That is all. The actual "service delivery" is not a factor in their heads. That can be left to a multitude of the cheapest contractors. They care nothing for the actual business of running an airline.
The problem for Joyce is that all he knows about is running LCC......so the solution is to turn QF into an LCC...because that is all he knows.