clotted.
You make the same mistake about Qantas history that many QF leaders who came after privatisation made. You assume that you could measure the success of Qantas by its annual dividend. In fact like BOAC/BA and many others that we now call legacy airlines, the Qantas owner (Fed Govt) used it for many results other than profit. These include but are not limited too, Foreign Policy and flag waving, Defence transport, Defence maintenance, apprentice training, other training, susidised exports and the list goes on.
As far as ports such as Damascus and Belgrade, they are examples of 2 different animals. From memory Damascus was due to overflight rights. I can remember ar least once landing there,taxiing to the end and taking off, just to satisfy those requirements.I suspect Belgrade falls under the flag waving category but I also remember some pretty good loads in the right season.It was also coupled with Athens, so a typical multi sector pickup that was common in those days
The real problem now if we loose Qantas as an Australian owned and based airline, is what happens when times get bad. An Austrlalian airline will always fly to Australia even if there is no profit in it for a time. It has to, its based there.That is not the case if the operator is say, based in the ME. An Australian airline is always available for emergencies in Australia or under the direction of an Australian Government, a foreign base airline is not.And the list goes on.I suspect that at least some of the "heavy lift" capacity of the RAAF is a direct result of the loss of QF as a Government enterprise. That surely is a cost to the Nation that would not have returned a QF profit but would have reduced expenditure to the earlier owner the Fed Govt.
The loss of something as big as Qantas must have a huge knock on to employment, taxation and foreign exchange.I agree with Sunny it is too big to let go for many reasons, profit only being one of them and yes I also query the wisdom of privatising it as the end result was obvious.I also query the wisdom of privatising airports on the same grounds.There are enterprises that are better off in private hands and those that are better off in Government hands.That is becoming more obvious by the month as we look back as those enterprises that used to serve the Nation well and now only serve the owners.
Wunwing
Last edited by Wunwing; 28th Nov 2012 at 01:25.