[QUOTE]*public would continue to flee to the middle eastern / Asian carriers that they now seem to prefer.*
/QUOTE]
a bit off topic, but then again maybe THE topic.
I've just got back from Europe, flying Emirates (380 and 777s ). We stopped over in Singapore on the way back, and ended up, without realizing when booking, on QF52 (A330) for the last leg.
it occurred to me ( only briefly, because I knew the answer) what a bloody good thing it would be if the board and senior management occasionally flew around the world, down the back, incognito, using a few different carriers.
No one who did what we did would ever fly Qantas again.
Entertainment systems - Emirates screens 3 times the size ( even on their older 777), umpteen times more content.
Paper cups for tea/coffee, plastic cutlery, no newspapers (plenty lying around in Business when you get off), water bottles.
The whole feeling, coming straight off 3 legs with Emirates ( who, until we got to QF, I wasn't that impressed with - delays/buses to planes/stuff ups etc) was of a LCC.
No hope competing with old equipment and a penny pinching culture.