John Hemption, Bronte Capital: Letting Qantas go bankrupt would be good for Australia

John Hemption, Bronte Capital: Letting Qantas go bankrupt would be good for Australia. Qantas has been so mismanaged it is almost the only airline in the world in financial trouble now. The rise in Chinese demand has meant that fuel-efficient aircraft are in short supply and any airline who has managed their fleet well is making excess profits. (Just look at the stock charts for US airlines). Qantas however has mismanaged its fleet to a degree that is now ludicrous. This week I will by flying Sydney to LA on a 777, a two-engine jet. Qantas does the route on old 747s (four engine jets). These are tens of tonnes of fuel less efficient. But the fleet mismanagement goes further. Decades of incompetence has left them with the most amazingly heterogeneous fleet in the world. This airline deserves to go bust. It is time to let Qantas fail.