TeeZed, I can't comment on your figures quoted, as it would not
be an informed comment, I don't have the numbers. But it would
be up to the present large shareholders to decide if its worth
throwing more of their money to try and rescue Qantas International,
or wether to cut their losses and try a different business strategy.

Given the attitude of some of the unions involved, although not
the pilots, I personally would not invest a single cent
in Qantas.

So why don't the employees buy it and show us how to run it?

Work out the company's value per employee and its not very much.

I won't attempt to correct the factual inaccuracies in this article but rather agree with the author's basic premise that Qantas needs to change.

Agreed!

However, you've got to have rocks in your head to believe that dramatically downgrading your employee's packages and then holding the federal government and public of Australia to ransom is a value-creating strategy. Particularly in parochial Australia.

And no you can't blame your international lines for massive losses from structural issues when the difference between loss and breakeven is the price of 1 single extra ticket sale per flight. (That's a sales problem not a network problem)

And no you can't cry poor when you make the world's best industry profits and pay super rewards to your executive team after massive devaluation of the corporations value.

So, I would have thought that most people trying to increase the value of their business would protect their core profitable services first. (Investment Rule #1: Don't lose money) In Qantas's world this would be things like customer loyalty, service quality, Australian pride, a complete network service offering, and cushy domestic low-competition markets.

And if you were trying to expand your business internationally with domestic sensitivities, terms of trade and a Qantas Sale Act against you, why wouldn't you place your investment funds in a better vehicle.

Like creating a brand new separate corporation.

You could list this new corporation on one of the US stock exchanges (which offer great PE ratios), and offer your existing shareholders the right to buy shares in the new company. You'd then share the same shareholders, could contract out your own management services, and grow your value with low cost labour if this is the best value-creation strategy.

No-one sane wants to stop the Qantas corporation growing but some maturity and superior decision making abilities are called for from the people that are being paid to have those characteristics.