not sure it's so much cost base as yield and load factors that is the issue - currently QFi has very high load factors.

people buying flights out of australia pay over the odds something like 20-30% compared to other countries flying in (eg uk/us).

'high cost base' is just smoke and mirrors for 'we want to screw down our labour costs as much as possible' - jetstar international can't make it's routes profitable even with cabin crew and pilots on singapore contracts.