This sounds very similar to what AJ said when giving Wirth the Government relations job.

I have to admit if I was Wirth I'd be a little peeved. Joyce supported the relationship at the beginning but now has backed away. Very spineless.

Welcome to the club Olivia!

Gotta love Joyce sacking 5000 staff at QF then promoting someone who has no idea. Rubbing salt into a wound!! :ugh:

Alan Joyce will get a grilling
 

7.00 ABC news24
"there will be two senate inquires into the airline"

"Alan Joyce will get a grilling"




God help us, ... Billy Shorten is really helping the cause...
.

No! I wouldn't think so, but hey, enjoy the scaremongering!

The problem is not debt guarantee or the QSA. It is the fact they Australia trade bilaterals like confetti and the International Air Services Agreements(ASA) were intended to balance out different cost regimes in the world and our rights into and out of Australia are the property of the Australian Government and the Australian people and not Qantas and/or Virgin. What everyone should be looking at is stopping any expansion of rights into Australia and exploring anti-dumping legislation. The European Union and Canada are excellent examples of what needs to be done. Australia is used to show other countries how NOT to liberalise these ASAs. I agree we(Aussies) are dumb and the Liberal Party circus needs to have the tents pegs pulled out, they are too beholdened to big business. The Qatars and Emirates are the slave traders of this century.

Gone Fishin, Alan and the team have done a very effective job of linking the words "loss making" and "International" together and
just about every brain dead lazy journalist has followed suit.

Is QF International really a loss making entity ?

Just because Al says so means jack sh*t, hey didn't Qantas swear black
and blue just a few weeks ago that they were "not like Holden" because
"we are not asking for a hand-out "..........

Well then what do you call an unsecured loan of 3 billion.......my point is that they have NO credibility, No conscience (and No F*&KING idea.......)

And while I'm at it, putting BGA in front of a Senate Inquiry will be a waste of time........put Collin Storie ( ex QF CFO, unquestionable integrity and honesty) in front of the Inquiry and Joyce , Clifford et al will sh*t themselves.

On the not like Holden score: QF clearly is not. You can get in a Holden and go wherever you want.

The received wisdom about long haul is that the old Kangaroo route never made money. Well, its gone now. So too Rome, Paris, half of London frequency, etc etc.

The rump of long haul left over must be doing OK judging by the loads and fares. If not, its because it has fallen below critical mass for the burden of the many executive, management, supervisory and administrative activities. Oh! And the odd bit of largesse for one or another of the group's junior airlines.

As has been pointed out, all of the various divisions are part of a cohesive whole. (Excepting JQ intl and franchises...they could go unmissed)

Virgin, it should be noted, did not separate business units in order to divest of one...they did it to game the ownership restrictions.

Sandilands confirms what business understands that the vaunted $3billion liquidity will get wiped out fairly soon when the notes out there become due or need to be rolled over.

Short of a miracle or Government intervention the music will stop.

But Joyce's dance card will be empty.

Complete trash! Qantas will have not have problems refinancing debt as it falls due as it has a significant asset base. The reduced credit rating will add about $100m in interest costs to total debt, most analysts predict. There is absolutely no suggestion (and no reliable analytical comment) that Qantas will be unable to refinance its debt when it falls due and will be forced to use cash to pay down debt. (Unless it can generate free cash flow to do so willingly; which is unlikely for some time).

The Government debt guarantee was about Qantas forcing Virgin (or more importantly, Virgins' backers) to back down from the capacity war eating away at Qantas' most profitable base. Nothing more, nothing less. Virgin showed it could tap its owners for capital. Qantas wanted to go one up and tap the government for a debt guarantee.

Did Qantas detail why they needed the debt guarantee? No! Did the government (PwC) analysis see why Qantas needed the debt guarantee? No!. If there were some pressing liquidity issues facing Qantas, would they have backed down on the debt guarantee so readily? No! Are there potential refinancing problems? No! Neither Qantas nor Government/independent analysis show any near term problems.

We'll see wont we.

How do you know all that? :rolleyes:

.

And maybe have a read of this while you wait! It was posted on planetalking, and as it wasn't about Qantas, Sandilands ignored it.

Virgin Australia Gets Samoa, Etihad Debt to Fight Qantas - Bloomberg

The government engaged PwC and co. to look at the debt guarantee. The government have stated that PwC and co. found no immediate reason for the debt guarantee. If PwC and co. saw looming funding/refinancing problems with Qantas debt/liabilities, they would have said so. This is the reputation of PwC in play here as well, they would have looked at near term debt refinancing.

The government debt guarantee was to be unsecured. Qantas could not come up with a reason for it. Did Qantas say they needed it to refinance debt? No! So why did Qantas want the urgent debt guarantee? Qantas has no major refinance due until 2015. Capital expenditure has been quashed. Qantas has $2.8b or odd in cash and undrawn credit. If nothing changed at all, they have several years of negative cash flow available. Finally, when the Qantas bluff was called, they backed straight down, why did they back down so readily? All this leads me to believe that the debt guarantee was simply about ending the capacity war as Virgin would have realised the $3b would change the game again. If Qantas got the debt guarantee, it would have sent a clear message to the owners of Virgin to back off, as pouring more money in would be futile. I truly believe it is that simple.

This is not to say Qantas is without some very severe structural problems. It is burning cash and would eventually face difficulties with financing. It needs to start generating positive cash. It's not good, but it's not dire!

OK fair point postie, but AJ went to a lot of trouble to annoy everyone in Canberra the last few months, probably lost a few friends along the way by asking for a cool 3 billion and now is in the process of sacking 5000 people.. whilst the Libs are trying to ram the QSA through the senate which will have no chance.

Funny way to run a private business when you don't have a major cash problem... complaining about everything that is not level and your local competiton is half your size.. Naah... something else is going on... it doesn't make sense...

MERGED: Alan's still not happy......
 

If the Australian Government consider Qantas as 'The National Carrier', should it not have to financially favour Qantas over any other airline of that benefit?

Perhaps a senate inquiry can did deeper, looking at how Qantas have got to a position where full time staff are being offered redundancies.

Qantas ordered to consider concessions | Sky News Australia

Qantas are now offering Voluntary redundancies to Sydney International Airport staff.

I posted last year about the treatment of the Sydney International baggage handlers.

Qantas did not tender for or seek to renew contracts for handling of other international airlines for baggage handling.

In between loading QF aircraft they would load other airlines & therefore being more efficient & generating additional income.

By not renewing other contracts the baggage handlers became costly and inefficient. As the full timers would sit around between handling Qantas flights.

Management decisions lead to theses inefficient work practices leading to a reduction in the full time workforce.

Looks like the same is now happening to those working at the terminal "above the wing".

A theme consistent around the group. Transfer flying, withdrawing from routes causing a surplus of pilots and assigning long service leave. Labelling employees as costly and inefficient.

Sound familiar?

MC.

MERGED: Alan's still not happy......
 

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't Part Timers and Casuals meant to be retrenched before Full Timers?

Sounds very familiar. Engineering handling contracts dumped from 2008, same for catering and cabin cleaning. All that revenue, down the drain. Their ridiculous excuse - 'we never made any money out of it'.

Qantas being competitive, efficient .... my a$$!

The unfortunate reality for Qantas staff is that they are being 'slow baked' by a sadistic management who are intent on the pursuit of a (Board directed) Union busting agenda. To try to dismiss this as paranoia or conspiracy is to ignore
the obvious.

It would be an understatement to say that this has had a devastating effect on staff morale.

Quote from qantas media this morn
"Our aircraft are most efficient when they're in the air...."
Oops, someone forgot to tell jetstar