Articles by Ben Sandilands

A combination of bravado and tacit admission of wrongdoing is contained in a defiant statement by Jetstar saying it will fight the charges laid by the FWA Ombudsman.

One of the spectacles mesmerising Australia’s airlines and media watchers alike is how what some see as the “attack-dog-right-wing tabloid” Daily Telegraph has turned on NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell over his inability to deliver transport solutions including a second Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek. Today’s installment of this campaign by the newspaper is in fact rational […]

Scoot is also a difficult term to translate into Chinese and other Asian languages, as in ‘flee’ as in a robber ‘fleeing’ the scene of a crime. This is like Qantas insisting on calling itself the ‘Spirit of Australia’ in Japan, which translates as the ‘ghost of Australia’.

No one with business contacts in Hong Kong or China would be in any doubt that this is potentially a huge opportunity for Qantas.

Qantas has lodged an objection against Virgin Australia’s plan to restructure its operations to take on board new stakeholders.

Qantas has finally told the ASX what everyone with a finger on the pulse has known for some time, that its proposed premium airline based in Malaysia is dead.

Expect fierce fare wars to break out in the domestic market following this morning’s reinvention of Singapore-owned and listed Tiger Airways as a low-fare carrier focused on Melbourne and Sydney.

Virgin Australia today did its bit to make news by adding to leadership tensions at Qantas.

It is not surprising 4000 of Air Australia’s customers are now being told to make their own way home after it went broke in the early hours of this morning.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce this morning delivered what he conceded was a poor half-year-to-December 31 performance by the company, while leaving considerable uncertainty hanging over jobs and services.

Virgin Australia confirmed what is only the first substantial addition of wide-bodied A330 capacity to key interstate markets that it will make in the nearer term.

For Premier Barry O’Farrell, the economic consequences of the weekend announcement by Victoria’s peak business body of its enthusiasm for a third Melbourne airport is probably under acute analysis

Job security at Qantas was supposed to be impossible to guarantee. It was supposed to be fatal to the airline’s ability to escape from the confines of Australia’s borders and become competitive.

Cockpit resource management failures kill people when they go wrong. They are a major cause of air disasters.

Events during the past 24 hours are not proving kind to Qantas’ ambitions in Asia. Vietnam Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have thrown spanners in the works.

Many things about the future of Qantas are never going to be decided today, but your holiday bookings on that airline look safe, no matter what.

The two presidential flying command posts held at constant readiness at Canberra today are worth a moment’s contemplation in the context of the strategic implications of the Obama mission.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce faces a huge task to rebuild his credibility after a morning of intense questioning before a Senate inquiry.

Qantas now has a real threat to deal with — Virgin Australia, with its bigger, cheaper business-class seats, real meals in economy class, lounges with food and seats for everyone. With lower fares.

Qantas and its natural enemy, Virgin Australia, are rolling out a massive and costly bidding war to retain or gain the customers that matter, the ones who fly frequently.

With the Qantas lockout of more than 80,000 customers without notice coming to an end this afternoon, the dispute that a 2am Fair Work Australia ruling appeared to solve is already hitting new turbulence.

With calls to save Qantas from “Asianisation” outside, and at times angry attacks on management defence of its decisions inside, the Qantas AGM turned nasty.

Qantas and safety investigator the ATSB have disagreed over an incident in which a Qantas 767 Cityflyer descended to 500 feet radio altitude with its wheels still up a mere 1500 metres north of Sydney Airport.