Scott W Minehane wrote:

I think part of the problem is that Qantas refuses to fly long haul out of Melbourne (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16). I refuse to fly to and from Sydney in order to fly internationally to Asia and beyond. It adds both hours (minimum 3-4 hours each way) and variability to my journey. And I do lots of international travel. Qantas' market share is falling because years ago there were fewer options, but while Qantas leaves major geographical market segments without service, it wont be getting my business. Other airlines serve Melbourne and other major cities much better – and win customers accordingly.

16 Aug 2011 2:46 PM

Greg McKay wrote:

First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon (August 16)? - You have got to be joking! Another nail in the coffin of an icon, perhaps. I think you have been spending far too much time listening to the Joyce 'spin'. Dig deeper and look at why Qantas is losing market share.

16 Aug 2011 4:23 PM

Bob Bolling wrote:

Singapore Airlines released results today that have many similar parameters to Qantas' and DBS Vickers are predicting a huge lift in SIA shares over the next 12 months (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

Meanwhile, SIA currently is undercutting Qantas' prices to London by about 17%. Poor Alan Joyce has a Sysiphean task if he is not allowed to attack his cost base, thanks to the unions that seem to run Australia today.

16 Aug 2011 5:51 PM

Paul Anton wrote:

I agree with Scott (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16). Qantas doesn't even register for us in Melbourne because we are made to go through other cities, usually Sydney. I don't understand why a city of 4.2 million comes a big distant second to a city of 4.6 million. Qantas, fix your routes and then worry about "Qantas Asia".

16 Aug 2011 9:29 PM

George Minikas wrote:

Having worked with Qantas over 43 years I have seen many changes, from a government enterprise to privatisation and many CEOs. Now from an outsider's point of view I can see where Alan Joyce is coming from (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16). Redundancies and job losses have occurred in Qantas for many years due to restructuring. The question that 'has not' been asked is how much of the Qantas red and white brand will we see maintain its Australian operations domestically and internationally and how much training will be carried out here.

17 Aug 2011 8:12 AM

Michael James wrote:

The issue is that Qantas is haemorrhaging red ink given that many of the costs of supporting Jetstar are charged to Qantas, not to Jetstar (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16). Thus Qantas looks less financially viable, while Jetstar looks far more financially viable than it really is.

I find it interesting that Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific can be profitable while charging less and delivering better cabin amenity and service than Qantas manages. The differences are not completely cost driven.

Much of it is due to far more effective management and a work force that is engaged, rather than demoralised. Perhaps they should outsource the management of Qantas to some effective airline managers and leaders, rather than the cost cutting accountants who seem to be in charge of Qantas now.

17 Aug 2011 10:25 AM

Lachlan Shaw wrote:

I couldn't agree with Scott and Paul more. Start giving Melbourne a much better international timetable and people will come back from Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Qatar and Thai Airlines, which typically have 2-3 services each day to Asia and Europe, versus Qantas with one via Singapore and a soon to be codeshare via Hong Kong (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

17 Aug 2011 12:02 PM

Harry Cadle wrote:

I agree with Scott Minehane (August 16, 2:46pm). I now fly Thai International because they fly direct from Melbourne and their service is so much better. Will Qantas relocate to Melbourne when it outgrows Sydney? (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16.)

17 Aug 2011 12:25 PM

B Allen wrote:

Greg McKay (August 16, 4:23PM) is right on the money: "Dig deeper and look at why Qantas is losing market share". The rot started at least ten years ago when quality was shelved as a USP. There are plenty of us who left QF for better options back then.

17 Aug 2011 1:24 PM

Gilson Bick wrote:

Three mining headkickers in a row, Strong, Dixon, and now Clifford. They all come from an industry with the philosophy of "grab the easiest of what is going for maximum profit" (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

I think airlines are as commercially competitive as it gets, and many times more complicated than giving the odd parochial state politician a seat on the board after politics, or threatening the federals with contrary advertising. For an airline, Qantas at the moment makes a really good iron ore mine. As a shareholder I am disgusted that everyone, especially the institutions, but also the politicians and to a lesser extent the unions, seem to have lost sight of the future. I think it is time for a new board.

17 Aug 2011 3:17 PM

Geoff Cripps wrote:

There are over 130 flights to Australia by Emirates and Etihad from the UAE direct and via transit locations weekly. Qantas does not have one service weekly to the Gulf (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

Qantas forgets that it needs to target where people want to travel to and they want minimal inconvenience, not the opportunity of lost baggage through changes of aircraft and carrier in ports. Perhaps if a study on the demographics of Australia were conducted, this may give an indication of where Qantas should fly to. Family, friends and business as well as income levels are where money is made in the airline business.

17 Aug 2011 4:23 PM

M K wrote:

Yes, thanks Scott (August 16, 2:46pm), with regard to shedding market share on QF routes to Asia and Europe one has to look at QF's available flights, flight timings, service etc... They fail to compete effectively and therefore have been losing market share.

It's not just a factor of running costs - and staff wages. Again and again customers have been pointing out in such forums as this the direct better experience of travelling on many other airlines despite their (still amazingly) fading loyalty to Qantas. Management (and flight attendants) haven't listened. Service on board in QF economy generally is really woeful compared to their competitors. Flight crew need to wake up quick while, there are still some jobs available.

Now management are culling remaining unprofitable routes and destroying the remaining financial goodwill in the brand. It's sad (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

18 Aug 2011 3:41 AM

John Washington wrote:

Joyce is playing with fewer and fewer cards (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16). The company is saddled with a highly unionised workforce that can't see past the next pay rise. When you consider that pilots on the A380 earn up to $500,000 and their engineers are paid 3-4 times what other airlines pay, its the old concrete shoes for Qantas, I'm afraid. A couple of years back the average time Qantas engineers took to perform routine, periodic maintenance on a B747 engine was over one year. The global average was 74 days.

18 Aug 2011 1:08 PM

Eryl Allder wrote:

It is sad that shareholders come ahead of passengers (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16). What happened to service both on the ground and in the air? It is almost impossible to contact the airline if overseas. In 2007 we missed our Lufthansa connection in Frankfurt because our Qantas flight was late and had to wait until the Qantas check in was open at 9.00am before we were able to rebook the Lufthansa flight (included in the ticket) to Munich.

In 2009 My husband got food poisoning on a Qantas flight from Singapore but we had no way of telling the airline.

18 Aug 2011 3:00 PM

Tim Threlfall wrote:

I couldn't agree with Scott, Paul and Lachlan more. Give Melbourne a better international timetable and people will return. I use Qantas by choice but if I have to fly through Sydney I simply use another carrier (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

18 Aug 2011 4:19 PM

Karsten Schimkat wrote:

I'd love to see a great Aussie company leave our shores. Because in the long run if it's not too late we may learn from union obliteration and government meddling (being a carbon tax, under which an Aussie carrier can no longer compete) and it will teach us to see past Labor's lies at the ballet box (See First blush of a brighter Qantas horizon, August 16).

18 Aug 2011 8:34 PM