Re: ...and in other news.... Air NZ profit
... AIr New Zealand's profit is nothing to do with its performance or being a National carrier. It has everything to do with its asset sales and contraction (this year only).
After all, its their first reported profit for a decade or so. There is no way a carrier for a far-flung island like ours can possibly turn a profit, unless local regulation allows it to do so. And doing that flies in the face of supporting competition (and hikes prices on the consumer).
Qantas on the other hand has also been busy flogging assets, contracting its business and diverging into other nation's markets. Hardly the core business of a national carrier. By focusing on investing elsewhere, local management have failed to develop the core business (or even compete). In fact the company's managers have deliberately or stupidly caused operational shutdowns to have run ins with staff in line with a misguided strategy/advice.
Now looking the other way is one thing, but
- Focusing all your business resources (let alone capital and capacity) on other markets
- Cooking the books to do it
- Having barely any ad campaigns to build the brand other than an occasional abysmal failure
- Fighting misguided national political and PR battles
- Losing investors money to force the government to bank-roll and/or deregulate your business
... all this points to another management team explaining evaporating profits whilst dumping money on speculative and risky overseas ventures through hasty and secretive restructuring, just like Telstra (Sensis, PCCW, Spike, Massive, etc.)
When all is said and done, once the Leprechaun has done the bidding of the asset strippers and eventually gets seen by the government for the appalling stooge he really is. And Abbot and Hockey will be known for driving flat out as the dying kangaroo as it tries to crawl off the road on their way to the worst recession we didn't have to have.
In the end, all this is about maximising the returns for those who control the business. At the moment, they are nothing more than asset stripping bankers, and their mates are telling them they can strip the government's pockets of some tax-payer funds at the same time as they take the cash they're collecting from the poor ol' dying kangaroo's pouch.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
