An interesting story in The Age today about QF, with some analyst comments (a bit different perspective than pax have), full story titled "Qantas, the year the wings fell off" is at
http://business.theage.com.au/busine...59.html?page=1
They say, in part,
"Qantas would be in real trouble if it weren't for Jetstar. I think it would be on the brink of collapse. It would have been murdered in the domestic market and it wouldn't have had the options internationally."
And go on to mention the MH merger in that context.
Has QF been telling analysts that the future is in lowered labour costs, by going offshore if it has to? You be the judge. Certainly QF is getting delivery of a lot of nice new airplanes during a downturn in travel (next 2 years) and will have a fuel efficient fleet if it can get the loads up on the A380s and 787s. My own theory is that the allure of the BA merger was to get A380s flying LHR-JFK-SYD-LHR (a thrue RTW flight, just as PanAm did).