Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce, speaking at the carrier’s AGM, defended (24-Oct-2014) the carrier's investment in Jetstar's Asian franchises, noting: "The investments in Asia are less than one A380 in terms of the size of them, and they are huge opportunities for us moving forward."
CAPA
V-Jet, as shocking as this sounds, he is a serial "start-up" junkie, paraphrasing his own words. Start many business, most will fail, but hit a home run with one. The "Home Run" in his mind is Jetstar Japan, alleging the current stake is worth double what QF have tipped in. The model we entered was the Tech Wreck pump-&-dump asset boosting of the late 90's.
I wish it was all a dream, but that IS the way he has actually run things as CEO. Look back over the history of announcements (RedQ, AirAsia tie-up + all the Asian franchises) - history, hindsight & his own words in public validates my allegation. No, I am not joking, he actually let this slip during the recent charm offensive.
Notice how these franchise efforts are simply no longer touted & lauded in the media, and will quietly fade away from people consciousness over time. In a future years when the history is written of this era, these will be a footnote in history, seen as diversion from the core business of moving people from A to B, instead of attempting to run a hedge fund trading desk. Management has been seriously diverted from the primary task of running an airline during the Dixon / Joyce era. John Borghetti even admitted how damaging these kinds of distractions were back in 2007 during the previous APA fiasco.
Mr Borghetti said Mr Dixon and chief financial officer Peter Gregg were among high-level staff who worked on the deal.
"Senior management (including) Geoff, Peter, me, a lot of time was taken up with this thing," he told an American Chamber of Commerce lunch.
"It went about six months, you couldn't get your job done, you had to sort of abandon it. You couldn't focus on it."
Mr Borghetti said that other senior executives had "carried the company through" during the attempted takeover period.
Dixon's buyouts warning