November 30, 2011 – 2:00 pm
Things were ugly at times at Qantas check-ins across the country this morning because its Amadeus passenger handling system was for a few hours broken world wide, and self-service kiosks were refusing to recognise bar codes or frequent flyer cards. Result: Back to the early 90s, or was it the 80s, with handwritten boarding cards. [...]
November 30, 2011 – 7:08 am
The overnight filing for protection under US bankruptcy laws by American Airlines is unlikely to have any fast repercussions for Australian travellers. The medium term consequences could well be another matter, and it is worth doing a search of both the US legacy and social media channels today to pick up on the pessimistic responses [...]
November 29, 2011 – 5:08 pm
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was seen at Hong Kong Airport this morning. As previously noted, HNA Group is turning Hong Kong Express into a low cost carrier, and if the Jetstar franchise is to be expanded into the SAR the pumping of Qantas assets into a rebranding of a carrier which already has slots and [...]
November 29, 2011 – 10:12 am
It is almost 50 years to the day when on the evening of 30 November 1961 an Ansett-ANA Vickers Viscount 700 series turbo-prop dived out of control into Botany Bay, killing the two pilots, two flight attendants and 11 passengers on board. This was a shocking accident at many levels, yet it led to overdue [...]
November 28, 2011 – 1:45 pm
Updated after Qantas says Asia based premium carrier still alive Are claims by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce that it has not dropped its Red Q Asia based carrier credible? It appears to be like the parrot in the Monty Python sketch, not dead, just not talking. This might be a timely moment in which [...]
November 28, 2011 – 10:19 am
Qantas has slashed its first half guidance for the six months to 31 December to between $140-190 million on an underlying PBT basis, compared with a reported first half result for the previous corresponding half of $417 million on the same basis reported on 17 February this year. It has not responded to further reports [...]
November 28, 2011 – 9:03 am
No-one will be surprised by more reports that the Red Q nonsense from Qantas has fallen through. Well, apart from some very susceptible analysts. The development was widely reported in the Asia business media in recent weeks. But given the price sensitive nature of the announcements on this project made by CEO Alan Joyce in [...]
November 28, 2011 – 7:33 am
Updated re RedQ The confirmation of the widely suspected Dixon plan for a Qantas play back in May, a pathetic Qantas share price, and a management with debatable intentions seem to have pushed Qantas toward a clear and obvious risk of break-up. After all, the job of management is to maximise returns to investors, themselves [...]
November 27, 2011 – 9:47 pm
Mars Rover Curiosity is on its way; the most powerful and sophisticated robotic expedition yet to seek the unknowns of the red planet. But those who are curious about ‘Curiosity’ will discover from the NASA library that the launch is not the largest or biggest scientific payload assembly yet sent to Mars, contrary to the [...]
November 26, 2011 – 1:18 pm
A sharp reminder about offshore maintenance failings and poor supervision of outsourced work by an airline has been reported overnight concerning an Air France A340. The jet underwent maintenance at the TAECO-TAIKOO facility in Xiamen, which is part owned by Boeing, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines as well as PRC and Honk Kong parties, on [...]
