ASB?: Kill your national carrier

QANTAS is very profitable, I think one of the most profitable airlines in the world.
The Japanese shoot them down over the Indian Ocean in 1942. BA steps in to fill the gap and remains a big enough player to strangle Ansett et al in the cradle.
 
As for Qantas. Make Qantas as incompetent at the top as Telstra with international airlines and other domestic airlines (Virgin, a surviving ansett) becoming more viable and take market share away from them. That still probably doesn't destroy them.

Though Ansett did die and that was the #2 airline and most likely would have become the 2nd major international airline had it not collapsed so maybe Qantas isn't that safe.
 
Air China* is forced by the government to support some premature domestically manufactured commercial airliner program, a few crashes happen, the company’s safety record is tarnished.

In OTL it has a first-grade airliner fleet, and a okay safety record, it had only one major crash in 2002, apart from crashing after being hijacked.
 
Equip your fleet with Boeing 737-800 Max’s. A few crashes later and your safety records gone. Seriously is there a fundamental flaw with the 737-800 Max with two very similar crashes in under a year of brand new planes?
 
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Any particular reason why America never went with having a true flagship airline?
Capitalism.

But seriously it was because the geography of the United States is so big and the range of the first passenger airplanes was small that the first airlines in the United States started as regionals then as the range for the planes grew longer there was consolidation and mergers of the airlines.
 

SsgtC

Banned
Any particular reason why America never went with having a true flagship airline?

Capitalism.

But seriously it was because the geography of the United States is so big and the range of the first passenger airplanes was small that the first airlines in the United States started as regionals then as the range for the planes grew longer there was consolidation and mergers of the airlines.
Basically this^^^^
 
As for Qantas. Make Qantas as incompetent at the top as Telstra with international airlines and other domestic airlines (Virgin, a surviving ansett) becoming more viable and take market share away from them. That still probably doesn't destroy them.
There was the attempted private equity takeover of QANTAS back in 2006. Fair odds that if that had come off the company would have been asset stripped, used to carry debt from other takeovers and then shot into bankruptcy...

Another option would be less investment/fleet renewal in the lead up to privatization, or possibly no merger with Australian Airlines prior to the merger. The first sets shit up to hit the fan when new airframes are needed, while the second means QANTAS doesn't have the juicy domestic market dominance to keep cash rolling in.

Or the 2011 strike and subsequent grounding and lock-out (and associated 2014 faux-big losses...) could go much worse than OTL.

Or we could look into the future... with the limited investment over the last decade or so in QANTAS proper under Alan Joyce (in favour of a variety of failed or poorly performing ventures related to Jetstar), the fleet is starting to show it's age and is noticeably less fuel efficient than many of it's competitors... Throw in an oil price spike and things could get bad.
 
Air China* is forced by the government to support some premature domestically manufactured commercial airliner program, a few crashes happen, the company’s safety record is tarnished.

In OTL it has a first-grade airliner fleet, and a okay safety record, it had only one major crash in 2002, apart from crashing after being hijacked.
I had a teacher who traveled with them in the 80s. Apparently ex-air force pilots would default to very steep take offs. He had a story of a pilot exiting the cockpit to have a smoke in the toilets. Returning to the cockpit door. Disappearing again. Then returning with an ax to smash his way though the locked cockpit door. Fun times.
 
There was the attempted private equity takeover of QANTAS back in 2006. Fair odds that if that had come off the company would have been asset stripped, used to carry debt from other takeovers and then shot into bankruptcy...

Another option would be less investment/fleet renewal in the lead up to privatization, or possibly no merger with Australian Airlines prior to the merger. The first sets shit up to hit the fan when new airframes are needed, while the second means QANTAS doesn't have the juicy domestic market dominance to keep cash rolling in.

Or the 2011 strike and subsequent grounding and lock-out (and associated 2014 faux-big losses...) could go much worse than OTL.

Or we could look into the future... with the limited investment over the last decade or so in QANTAS proper under Alan Joyce (in favour of a variety of failed or poorly performing ventures related to Jetstar), the fleet is starting to show it's age and is noticeably less fuel efficient than many of it's competitors... Throw in an oil price spike and things could get bad.

That is actually a fantastic way of doing it. Also QANTAS under Joyce could certainly end up going under if they keep it up (though i suspect the government would bail them out). Unless of course you have another national level airline like Ansett there.
 
I had a teacher who traveled with them in the 80s. Apparently ex-air force pilots would default to very steep take offs. He had a story of a pilot exiting the cockpit to have a smoke in the toilets. Returning to the cockpit door. Disappearing again. Then returning with an ax to smash his way though the locked cockpit door. Fun times.
Eh, i heard this story in another version. Are you sure this isn't an urban myth?
 
I actually read this as a one page comic strip in a Belgian magazine in the early 1990's.
If this is from comicstrip „Natacha“ ? Then is very likely Happen at Sabena...
Ther carrier BARDAF (Wallone for Loud noise) is Model After Former Belgium national Carrier
 
QANTAS is very profitable, I think one of the most profitable airlines in the world.

Qantas was almost sold off by another country in 1992 so that could easily happen if Paul Keating didn't step in to stop the selling of our national airline.
 
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