“Our” Airline

It was just one small purchasing decision among tens of thousands travellers would have been making that day, but I had to fly up to Sydney for a brief but time sensitive appointment in early October, and despite, for now at least, Qantas having the better frequency of service, and, historically at least, a better on time performance record, I flew up on Virgin Australia because I had a much greater chance of getter there and back on time, which I did.

In effect I heeded ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas’s advice not to fly with Qantas because of the threat of industrial action. And anecdotally I am far from alone, with Virgin Australia flights now bulging full, and Qantas’s reputation for reliability increasingly stained.