Not in the true sense of a national carrier. There is no ownership. Military transport is always done by some sub-contracted charter outfit. Many other operators charter for the Australian government too. Alliance goes flat out during an election. I would hazard a guess that the political blowback from not using Australian Carriers in the last 3 months were why they went with QF. China Southern would have been cheaper but they wouldn't want the publicity. Qantas Pilots likes to think of it as a National Carrier but it isn't by any stretch of anyone's imagination.

It doesn't take much to see what the game is here. Take the payment (have a look at your refund rights!) and cancel the flight and refuse the refund and give the sucker a voucher.

AJ 😂

But it’s ok for Virgin and QF to take your money and do the same, they’re doing exactly the same.

And that's your opinion.

The overwhelming majority of the Australian public would say Qantas. Most wouldn't even know who Alliance is.

Qantas is the national carrier. ownership restrictions and public + political sentiment dictate this.

It’s hard to believe that there is no conversation about Qantas’ financial position.I’m not sure how many aircraft they have dedicated to international operations,but there is unlikely to be any flying for them in 2020.If Virgin survive, the government will have to unsure that Qantas does not engage in predatory operations by flooding the domestic market with a surplus supply of seats.So how long can Qantas sustain their international fleet grounded?

Longer than Virgin can. So its not hard to believe at all.

Boeing states will take years for travel to recover to preCOVID levels.

Even if the pandemic is brought under control, many people have lost their jobs and are otherwise not spending, so fewer leisure travel. Same with business travel.

https://www.marketwatch.com/discover...ist_amp_social

It’s not that hard, although this thread is talking about it. It’s not big news because there’s not much to say. Anyway, Qantas said it had A$2.95 billion of cash, another A$1 billion undrawn credit facility and a further A$3.5 billion of unencumbered assets available. They have capital raising options as well as further debt options. Also the FF business to trade against not that they would. Nevertheless, some sort of restructure is likely to preserve their financial position.

Qantas is releasing a market update today which should give an idea of how they are travelling - all Joyce's previous statements have been "smoke & mirrors" so this update will need significant forensic examination.



Just in:

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/me...term-recovery/

AJ has told us that the group has enough cash to last until December 2021.

AJ has been quite open and accurate with his statements and the latest update confirms Qantas’ strong financial position under near impossible circumstances.

‘Fleet, network and capital expenditure will all have to be reviewed’. No smoke and mirrors...pretty clear change is on the way, you wouldn’t expect anything else.

Now that we know QF won’t enter VA anytime soon, maybe we can use this thread to speculate on the above quote from this mornings update.

My Speculation: 747’s will never fly again, and JQ won’t operate the 787 again

I would say the 380’s are toast as well.

in a low demand, price sensitive market, and with a weakened/refocused (and hopefully still operating!) virgin, JQ domestic could be first to start bouncing back.

agree about the 787.

I doubt the ever loving and caring AJ has it in his heart to keep all the pilots and FAs on the books til flying picks up again. Sincerely hope it's not the case but my guess is that significant redundancies at international will be virtually a given and as previously pointed out, likely end game is to be majorly restructured with some less than stellar wages/conditions for crews when things pick up again in a few years time...basically managements wet dream for pilot pay.

They know very well that they have the pilots by the beanbags now in this economic environment and god knows they will capitalise on it down to the last cent. There will be some big and nasty change coming. No pilot at any airline has any leverage anymore, I'm generally an optimist believe it or not! but being a realist now, gotta accept the inevitable for our industry.

On the contrary if VA doesn’t get started this year JQ will need the 787s or some of them for domestic.
everything hinges on the strength of the competition if and when it comes .

If the Jetstar 787s operate domestically - it won’t be with a star on the tail.

If JQ and QF have extended stand down due to demand until July, this would not be good for Virgin either, hard to sell a business that's not making money right?

Is that to speculate the 747 and possibly A380 won't be flying for a long time, if ever?