Another week, another, well where do I start…..

February 18, 2012 1 Comment

I was looking at my schedule yesterday and I have flown 59 legs this financial year, that is 59 trips to the airport, 59 scans and security screening and 60 times boarding (yep, that is not a misprint!).  It Friday and I am on my way home for another week,  You will be pleased to know that this week, Qantas got the plane allocation scheduling back on track and I did not have to go through the ringer to get my favourite exit seat.

1H12

The big news of the week as the 1H12 Results delivered by Alan Joyce on Wednesday.  No real surprises in the commentary from Qantas.  Fuel was more expensive than ever, softer inbound demand from the UK and Europe, strong outbound growth (we Australians do love to travel) and robust domestic demand (see previous point).

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The notes from Qantas noted that the Industrial dispute last year cost the airline $194m.  In the corresponding 1H11, the mess with Boeing and the A380 Grounding cost the airline $55m.  On top of this, the fuel bill went up $444m across the whole group for the period.  I can not help but think that if Alan Joyce had not grounded the Qantas fleet last year, the EBIT for the Qantas segment would be closer to $200m and Group EBIT in the region of $420m.  Now I am not privy to how Qantas keep their books and how the accountants came around the loses for the grounding but I can not help but think that it just does not add up and the PR team are being liberal with the facts.

You too can get all the commentary from Qantas at the Qantas Investor section of the web site.

Air Australia

Hardly competition but Air Australia (Strategic Aviation) brought the administrators in and left a number of Australians trapped in exotic locations.  Qantas and Alan Joyce to his credit has indicated that the stranded travellers should turn up at Qantas /Jetstar desks and Qantas will look to get them home.  It is nice to see Qantas using it’s considerable fleet for good and win some PR points in the process.  Nothing like reinforcing the brand to trapped travellers.

Filed under Flying, Frequent Flyer, Qantanomics, Travel Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,