For a totally different spin on all the doom and gloom, here is a lighter response to the AFR and BRW articles (from the Margin Call column in The Australian):
Ground Control to Dicko
TO the airline that cried wolf. No! The wolf that cried poor. No! The wolf in kangaroo's clothing.
You have just got to give it to Dicko of Qantas. He is good.
There's the lad, his resolute visage, furrowed of brow, splashed puce upon the front cover of BRW. The headline: "Exclusive interview -- Can Qantas Survive? CEO Geoff Dixon Says the Airline's Future is Not Guaranteed".
It'd bring a tear to a glass eye, it would. The world's most profitable airline, veritably on the edge of extinction.
What with SARS, Iraq and that dreaded thing called competition, it's been a bit rough in the second half and Qantas will only make $500 million this year.
BRW contends the survival of the airline is "still a matter of intense debate ". Yeah, sure. We'll give you the tip, it's going gangbusters.
In fact Dicko and the crew have downsized so much they now have to upsize again. According to an internal memo: "There is a shortage of CFA's in BP226". It goes on, but to paraphrase, the Qantas first-class roster is some 90 hosties short, or 18,000 hours.
Elsewhere, load factors are running hot. All this moaning is really about busting the unions, getting rid of the foreign ownership cap and jagging the green light for the Air New Zealand tie-up. Sheer
PR.
As to survival, it might be handy if Qantas uses the right grease on its Boeing brakes. The inside tip about why the brakes on those two 747s (one of which resulted in an emergency evacuation) were set aflame recently was because the axle grease was not sufficiently temperature resistant.
As to profits, there will be a hit in the vicinity of $90 million for the reconfiguration of the four A330s which Qantas bought from Airbus. The galleys are being reworked so the A330s can fly international routes.
In light of SARS, and this preposterously political scaremongering from Qantas, we had a chat to Cathay Pacific yesterday. Cathay has not sacked a single worker since September 11 -- and casts no doubt over its own survival.
Amazing really! A journalist who seems to have some pretty good inside info and a reasonable grip on the issues.