It's hard to deny that Jetstar in it's true form as a LCC in the Aussie market was a good idea and was a successful strategy for the group when it was launched.
But the Jetstar we have today is a Hybrid semi full service airline that is to expensive to compete with Tiger and substandard to compete with Virgin.
So all it does now is just cannibalise mainline flying to the detriment of group yields and overall profitability.
Add to this the "Mcdonalds" style franchising of these asian Jetstar ideologies and the whole orange dream looks more like a financial nightmare for Qantas.
Ultimately the government will step in, it would be to politically damaging not to considering the alternative of having 33,000 employees joining the Dole queue and a large part of Australia's history disappear overnight (sorry to the Ansett guys, should also have happened in 2001 as well). But by then our illustrious irish leader will have parachuted out with cash dripping out his pockets while the loyal staff will be left to take pay cuts and freezes to help restore what has been deliberately destroyed.
God help the next mob and their employees this guy moves on to, wouldn't wish him on my worst enemies!
I had a very interesting and cordial private exchange with Geoffrey a year or two ago about my experiences as a QF mainline pilot.
The only conclusion I could reach was that he's utterly and comprehensively disinterested in anything other than what is written on the script he gets from Alan or Olivia (irrespective of whether it's true, or demonstrably false).
No surprises there.
