Originally Posted by
haughtney1
Sorry Deano but your argument is flawed and simplistic
Back in the 70's and 80's there was also no internet, no social media, the tourism industry was a mere pup compared to what it is today and the average standard of living when comparing most metrics was inferior.
Economy's of the time were more centrally controlled Which led to the rise of incredibly wasteful policy making. It also meant there was very little choice, very little in the way of travel for ordinary people and perhaps worst of all a great lack of opportunity in comparison to today.
Exactly
With so many now looking on Webjet etc, people are buying on price more than ever
Regular travelers will tend to look at comfort above price if there is not much difference
Other things factor in, like Manila locals will fly PAL to avoid the old terminal even if QF had a better service
A corporatised QF with a GM answering to a government instead of a board made up of bankers and investment fund reps would be little different
Other than profit would not be the primary objective
A larger QF breaking even or even losing $200 million a year would be more than offset by the income tax revenue from thousands of new or re-hired employees
Pilots, cabin attendants, engineers, admin etc
Legacy government owned airlines still offer great service at reasonable prices
Its the ones that are privately owned that struggle and fail
With tourism so important to our economy with the mining boom over, we need to ensure that this industry is strong and resilient
An inbound tourist that has a poor experience on a foreign airline starts and ends on a downer and is unlikely to talk up their holiday as much
Right now, if a QF international route fails to make money, its dropped
Just look at the farce with the 787 Mel-Per-Lhr and return which is downgraded from an A380
Passengers will now just fly Emirates with a mid way stop in a more comfortable aircraft rather than a cramped 787 stopping a mere 3 hours into the flight
Qantas was an icon under government ownership, now it is no better than Jetstar, actually you even have more personal space on a Jetstar a320 than a Qantas 737
Speaking of Jetstar, what a great joke that turned out to be
You often pay more on Jetstar than Qantas for the same journey
If things don't change Qantas will have no international network within 10 years