To celebrate the centenary of military aviation in Australia, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Darren Chester and Deputy Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Leo Davies have launched the Centenary of Military Aviation Airshow to be held at Point Cook, RAAF Williams, near Melbourne on March 1. “The first of March 2014 will be
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Qantas’s credit rating from BBB minus, it’s lowest investment grade rating, to so-called junk status, but Qantas says it is “business as usual”. Separately, fellow ratings agency Moody’s said on Thursday night it had placed Qantas on negative watch but that it was maintaining its Baa3 investment
Warren Truss, the minister responsible for the transport portfolio, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott have both used separate media engagements to hose down expectations that the federal government will provide financial support to Qantas. “The government isn’t a banker and there are no doubt lots of companies or private individuals that would like government to
Virgin Australia has issued a sharply worded statement disputing Qantas’s assertions that it benefits from having foreign government owned airlines as its major shareholders. “The proposition that Virgin Australia has access to cheaper capital by virtue of our shareholder base is completely false,” the statement reads, before noting that Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines
At the Dubai Airshow Qantas’s major alliance partner Emirates (one of those dastardly foreign government owned airlines) placed colossal orders for 150 Boeing 777Xs and 50 Airbus A380s. That presages yet more booming growth for Emirates. Fast-forward barely two weeks and Qantas is forecasting massive financial losses, 1,000 job cuts and another review of its
An expected financial loss of $250-300 million for the first half of the current financial year is seeing Qantas slash “at least” 1,000 jobs among a range of other measures as it struggles to further cut costs in a deteriorating airline travel market. “We will do whatever we need to do to secure the Qantas
