Originally Posted by yellow77
QF may not have government help, but you can't deny that it does get an awful lot of help from the structure of the Australian airline market. It has a monopoly on domestic premium airline travel, and substantial market power on several other profitable international routes; plus it has a monopoly among Australians wanting an FF program that works both domestically and internationally. In the US, there are 6 legacies competing for this market. It does rather tend to erode the profits. You may not like the inflight services of the US legacies compared to QF, but that is what competition, together with a few bad decisions and some extremely poorly conceived bankruptcy legislation, can do.
Please keep in mind that Australia only has 20 million people and the USA has 250 million. The market in the States is a lot bigger. As for having a monopoly over the domestic premium market, this would change end of this month with OzJet starts its operation in earnest. And Vrigin Blue should launch its FF porgram at the end of this year.
Yes, US legacy carriers has done it tough over the past few years but it seems that few would survive but for the generous "subsidy" and bankruptcy protection from the government.
Sorry to the mods for getting OT just a little...
