Your Thai or Chinese for dinner comes at a price. QE must compete to be sustainable
Unfortunately you summed it up mate. There is a definate choice here, and the choice is safety or cheap. Unfortunately for the travelling public it appears the scales are being tipped.
When I go out (yes I do get out occassionally), I still get asked very often by friends and people who travel, which airlines are safe to fly. I was ofen told "I only fly with Q....s because they are the worlds safest airline",
Now, as you pointed out BP, it seems the playing field is becoming levelled in this area. I even sat in a feedback meeting and heard GH state that we don't have the monopoly on safety anymore. Other MRO's are as safe as us (whatever the motives were for such a statement is beside my point). Many of our aircraft get heavy checks done overseas by other MRO's. EASA has reduced the standards required to carry out work in Australia.
We were the safest because of the way things were done. That was a niche. Now that doesn't seem important. What I am hearing is we need to be on par.
So BP2197, when we are simply on par with the rest of the world in the way we treat maintenance, what edge do we have in attracting those who flew because of our safety?