Bouncing back?

It is a livery that represents what for many was Qantas’s golden age, a time when the 747 was making air travel accessible to the many and not the privileged few, allowing Australians to travel the world like never before, and the world to travel to Australia.

And it is a livery that has clearly resonated really strongly with the travelling public and most particularly with Qantas staff, many of whom either joined the airline when its aircraft wore that ochre livery, or who, like me, as kids had a passion for aviation inspired by seeing (or flying on) 747s with the flying kangaroo on their tails.

So it is fantastic to see that livery and that history celebrated – the retro livery is clearly a point of pride for Qantas staff, and also a sign that optimism is returning to a company that only 12 months ago was arguing for government support but that is now on track to again post relatively healthy profits.

Because there is no doubt the Qantas brand has had its wings clipped of late, from the 2011 grounding to the current ‘transformation’ plan with its attendant 5,000 job cuts.

But the ‘retro roo’, a successful ‘Feels Like Home to Me’ marketing campaign that plays to the emotions passengers feel when they step onto a Qantas aeroplane to fly home, and the announcement of a likely $300+ million first half profit, points to an airline enjoying something of a resurgence.

Those glory days of the 1970s won’t return – deregulation, liberalisation and the boom in the affordability of flying thanks to ever more efficient aircraft and the growth of low-cost carriers (such as Qantas’s own Jetstar) mean aviation is radically different to what it was 40 years ago.

And Qantas itself has changed enormously in that time too – it is no small irony that a retro livery that celebrates the airline’s international flying heritage has been applied to a 737 that will fly almost exclusively domestically, and that the Qantas Domestic business has been profitable in recent years where the international division has not.

But, as chief executive Alan Joyce has put it recently, those headwinds that have buffeted the airline in recent times have become tailwinds, and there is an optimism at Qantas that has been missing for a few years.

Those headwinds that have buffeted the airline in recent times have become tailwinds.

That optimism is justified, and hard won, but there is clearly no room for complacency.

Today’s competitive landscape is nothing like it was in the 1970s, and Qantas faces a host of tenacious competitors. Sentiment alone is no longer a key competitive advantage. Qantas needs to continue to build on the strength of its brand that the retro roo represents – ‘Australian-ness’, service excellence, technical innovation and world-class safety and reliability.

Because locally, Air New Zealand, and, increasingly, Virgin Australia are leading the way in building cohesive brands built on innovation, service, product and corporate identity – as our features this issue on Air New Zealand’s viral inflight safety videos and Virgin Australia’s new long-haul business class seat attest.

The retro livery attests to the best of Qantas’s past, but its transformation means its future is still a work in progress.