Saving Qantas !

Qantas is hemorrhaging money !   It is in deep trouble and the prospect of closing it's doors is a possibility.   It will post a three hundred million dollar loss for the past six months of trading and a thousand more jobs will be shed as it attempts to prune back two billion dollars in overhead expenses.

Most Australians would see the loss of Qantas as a blow to our national pride.  It is one of the oldest airlines in the world and it has an extraordinary safety record.   That red and white Kangaroo logo on the tail was something we viewed with pride when " our " airline carried us to foreign airports.

Vast changes have occurred to the aviation industry from the days when the Australian government was a key player.   Canberra restricted Qantas to flying overseas routes - and strictly limited the number of competitors who could use our air space.   Domestic passengers had the choice of Ansett - or the totally Federally owned and operated - TAA.     Qantas was a government instrumentality and the government maintained strict control of both internal and external traffic to make sure the Australian airline industry was profitable.

Unfortunately, there was a down side - and we air travellers complained bitterly.    We had some of the highest seat prices in the world, both internally and externally, and those prices were never changing when it came to opening up this country to tourism.     Flight schedules followed the same dreary duopoly of timing and we became way out of kilter with the competitive new era of air travel in other parts of the world.

Australia finally opted for an " open skies " policy but it seems that this puts Qantas at a distinct disadvantage.  Qantas is now a " for profit " airline owned by the public who bought it's shares on the Australian stock exchange.   It is competing with competitors who are either fully or partially owned by their sponsor governments - and who do not answer to shareholders who demand a return on their money.

To survive, Qantas will need to be brought under at least partial government protection.  That may take the form of guaranteeing it's debts - thus allowing it to borrow at a cheaper rate of interest because of that security, or the Federal government needs to become a major shareholder in the airline, and either means that operating costs receive a subsidy to make them competitive.

We simply can not have the cheap prices presently offering and the opportunities that competition delivers with an open skies policy - and keep a shareholder owned national airline running profitably against that sort of competition.

The Qantas structure is out of kilter with the way the airline industry has developed in recent times.   We either face reality and make the necessary investment - or see Qantas follow so many other national airlines into oblivion !