So what can the Board do without further frightening the horses = share price and more importantly further demoralizing the staff.
Changing horses on the run is more likely to result in an even bigger train smash.
OR
Keep Joist in the traces and force him to fix his frck ups under riding instructions from the Board who represent the owners.
There is of course only 2 possible results.
He finally gets it and fixes it, by harnessing the huge depth of goodwill the staff and market have towards the QF brand.
Or the Board eventually
falls into the hands of Singo and his mates, which may not be such a bad thing.
Virgin and QF need each other to keep the market stimulated.
I think gaunty puts it well, exactly where I think the gameplay is at.. AJ is now focusing on domestic, but I have a slightly different take on the outcome.. I think AJ wants to destroy JB and Virgin... to get himself out of the hole he put himself in with Jetstar Asia.. none of this is good for Qantas International which seems to always be forgotten..
I received this email from a good friend in the industry in response to the AFR Clifford interview above.. I felt it was good enough to share on here (with permission from the writer.)
Hi Tim,
Finally, I have a coherent working thesis in my mind for the events of the last couple of months.
In a nutshell, AJ needs to kill Virgin.
Why? The 110 A320's to be delivered by 2020.
Asia hasn't worked, they are still committed to the A/C, so the only option is to deploy them somewhere else (or take a huge hit on crystallizing non-delivery losses). Where to deploy them? Simple, domestically.
This is why they wanted the debt guarantee, and the wage freeze. This enables him to sustain the capacity war as a Virgin killer.. He has also said they will add 4~6% capacity this year, and fares are already ridiculously low and falling.
The only logic that make sense is this is not just about hurting your competitor, but eliminating him. This will give him 100% in the short run, and allow delivery of almost all aircraft without penalty.
Basically, it is his last throw of the dice, almost a binary outcome, where because of the A320 orders, Virgin has to die in order for QF to survive. Unless the capacity war kills Qantas first.
I'm first to put my hand up to say I don't understand the contractual arrangements when aircraft are purchased by airlines, so my first question in response to my friends email was... Is the Qantas group forced to take delivery of these airframes by 2020? And if Qantas doesn't take delivery of these airframes, what are the penalties and how much would it hit the Qantas group bottom line?
As I see it, the Qantas domestic fleet is relatively young, so I don't see the need for it to be changed for a new Airbus fleet which would be in J* configurations yes / no???
Finally, if AJ was serious about transforming Q Int, couldn't he rearrange the Airbus orders for some A330/50s as a quick fix to replacing airframes urgently required for International to expand again?
Surely AJ should be focused on all of the Qantas group and not his ego war with Virgin and lovechild J*?
It wouldn't be he first time a CEO has ambushed a Board with this sort of result hoping to the end it would all work out at the end.
Well said gaunty, appears so.. but people forget, AJ is a member of this board
http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airl...tors/global/en
Meanwhile, in other parts of the world things are looking up
Global airlines on profit high
.
.