Moreover, why is it always someone else taking a bite of Qantas?
I prefer this approach:
Qantas hungry for foreign airline stakes
By Geoffrey Thomas
February 24 2003
Qantas has flagged that it could be on the takeover trail if the Iraqi war erupts and the conflict brings airlines to their knees.
Mr Dixon warned that the Iraqi conflict would lead to consolidation in the industry and that Qantas would be well placed to take advantage of it.
Airline analysts said yesterday Qantas could be targeting a 25 per cent stake in Oneworld alliance partner American Airlines.
"If there was a war in Iraq, I believe we will have failures of airlines and the inevitable consolidation that must be necessary in an industry that has such high people and capital costs will happen," Mr Dixon told Nine's Business Sunday program.
He said the aviation industry was in chaos, as hundreds of thousands of people were losing their jobs, planes were being stored, US airlines were insolvent and there was trouble in Europe. Qantas would be poised to take advantage of the situation after announcing a record interim profit of $352.5 million on Thursday.
"Perhaps we will be in the position to be able to look at whether there is potential opportunities out there - not people looking at us whether we are a potential opportunity," he said.
For some time Qantas has been eyeing equity buys in foreign airlines and could take as much as a 25 per cent equity in American Airlines under current US legislation.
In the past two years, American Airlines' stock has fallen from $US40 to just $US2.91 on Friday. American has 155 million shares on issue and a 25 per cent stake would cost Qantas $US113 million ($191.5 million) - a fraction of what American Airlines is worth in normal times.
However, any such investment would only be struck after American had renegotiated with its unions for substantial pay cuts more in line with industry standards for lower cost airlines such as Southwest of the US.
The West Australian (but copied out of the 24/2 SMH)