Fact is people, all airlines have their problems.
QF's problem has long been it's inconsistent and reactionary approach to it's customers and to competitors in that order.
Steps are being taken to address this problem. No carrier is immune to the problem of bad service (United, Virgin Atlantic, BA, et al have all had their share of hard knocks from the travelling public). Virgin Blue are just as guilty of poor service as QF, albeit on a much reduced scale.
Virgin - just like QF, and every other airline - has problems with safety that arise, quite often than not, from human factors and training issues. Not new problems by any means, but certainly not restricted to any one particular airline.
There is always room for improvement when it comes to service. And to a degree, there are those crew in QF who deserve the 'push'. But getting rid of older, more experienced crew isn't necessarily the answer - you will find just as many stroppy younger aged crew flying as there are older, more experienced crew. So does sacking those we deem to be 'terrible' solve our problem in the short or long term? No - nor will it ever solve the problem.
I think the problem is broader than most believe...
Geoff Dixon have made no secret that they wish to cut costs - for the most part, this has been borne by the employees. They have had to endure restructure after restructure, redundancies, doom and gloom mantra, etc. for too long now...they are bitter, over it and quite frankly, they've had enough (I sure as hell have).
Just look at airlines such as Frontier or Southwest in the US - companies that actually value their employees by spending money to make money (happy employees mean happy customers - simple). Unless QF feels threatened, it 'reacts' by holding onto its' purse and continuing to talk about how hard done by they are (yeah - their second biggest competitor went bust, and their neighbours in the region are all hurting in one form or another).
My formula for happy employees = happy customers may sound over-simplified, but I challenge anyone on this board to show me an airline where a responsible, driven management that shows respect and values its employees has done bad. I can name at least three airlines in the US where employees are valued and as such, the airline benefits from continued and new patronage - Frontier, Southwest (of course) and Continental Airlines.
I think the solution to this problem is quit making QF staff the scapegoat for everything that is wrong with QF ("Labour costs account for up to 30% of our total expenditure"..."we must streamline our business with more efficient [read: lowered] conditions"...). Unions don't run QF, nor will they ever run QF - but they are an important part of employee representation. I shudder to think what would come of QF without union representation (and I ask that you all keep any responses to this statement mature people)...
Value your staff Mr Dixon. Reward them for doing well, instead of routinely punishing them with cut after cut to their way of life and job security, which eventually impacts and upsets the people responsible for our income - the passenger.
And if you think that spending money doesn't necessarily equate to improvements in general (such as service, market share, punctuality, etc) , I suggest you read Gordon Bethune's book (Continental CEO) book called "From Worst to First" - an inspirational piece of literature I'm sure QF could learn a great deal from, for the benefit of employees and passengers alike.
And now I'm off my soapbox.