Ken Borough:
They may be increasing their capacity but are they filling it and, if so, how? I suggest that they are cutting fares and diluting revenue. Herein is one of Qantas' major problems: the Australian Govt has allowed foreign carriers almost unfettered access to the Australian market with a detrimental impact on Australian carriers. Like, how many Australians want to travel to the UAE, and how many UAE residents visit Australia to spend their hard (?) earned? Is anyone able to demonstrate what these carriers really do for Australia?
You can stick that comment where the sun don't shine Ken, it's special pleading.
Every other sector of the Australian economy is told, exhorted, cajoled and whipped with the "world competitive" cat of Nine tails by every State and the Federal Government and you say "but Qantas should be treated differently????" Are you for real????? You hypocrit!
Of course
even Qantas itself talks about "world competitive" when it suits them. Like when they are shipping their engineering offshore and employing cut rate New Zealand and Asian staff. "we have to be world competitive you know!"
Look at our farmers, miners and now our manufacturers. They have world prices rammed down their throats every day of the week, but somehow Qantas wants to be allowed to charge a premium for being "Australian"????
To put that another way, Qantas has bled the Australian travelling public dry for Forty years by taking advantage of geography and regulated markets.
Toughen up, Princess, or dry up and blow away and leave us in peace. You and your holier than thou attitudes make me sick. As far as I am concerned Qantas can retreat to Sydney and curl up and die of AIDS (acquired irrelevance disease syndrome). The more foreign carriers offering direct flights out of capitall cities other than Sydney, the better I like it.
Off to NZ at easter and it won't be on QF, I didn't even bother to look at their website. Ill plan my trip to Europe after that, and it will most probably start with a direct flight to Singapore - anything but Qantas.