Qantas Shares Tumble as CEO Joyce Says Carrier Must Grow or Die
20.05.12
(Updates share price movement in fourth paragraph.)
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Qantas Airways Ltd. must “adapt or die,” Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce told Australian lawmakers last week as the nation’s biggest carrier confronts rising costs on unprofitable international flights. Peter Bentley, a customer for more than 10 years, agrees.
“They don’t have enough choices for what I need right now,” said Bentley, head of sales for Pikes Wines, a vineyard based in the Clare Valley of South Australia. “We are on the doorstep of Asia and that is where we have the growth, and yet we seem to have these outdated ties to ‘Mother England.’”
For Joyce, Bentley reflects a missed opportunity to parlay 44 million passengers and a domestic market share of 65 percent into a business that can compete on faster-growing routes to Beijing and Shanghai. Sydney-based Qantas is reducing flights to Europe, shifting maintenance to Southeast Asia and planning a new airline in Malaysia or Singapore.
Source: BusinessWeek