Who would be a good replacement for Alan Joyce?

Even if it was not profitable this year, it has generally been profitable.

I don't understand why so many people on this site are so critical of Jetstar as a business when it is clearly a profitable business and was one of QF's better ideas. Is it just because you're just thinking as customers not investors/analysts?

Probably.

To be honest, I have no issue with JQ. It's just that it's not QF, so it shouldn't ever be marketed as such with interlining and even codesharing.

Exactly what i'm thinking.

Exactly, but it would be stupid of Qantas to ditch it.

Of course it would be spectacularly stupid, but the core mainline business is pretty important too.

The issue is, however, that I don't see the core mainline business surviving in the long term. IMO, full-service airlines in general are on the decline. The solution that I see is that Qantas evolve the business in one way or another.

Low cost should be a mantra across the business and not just isolated to one business unit. If you are able to achieve a low cost base enterprise-wide, why the need to have a differentiated product which is seen to be less than premium. This impacts the message to and perception of your customer base. 

Investors who believe in Qantas' low cost strategy are myopic. Anyway just because the analyst think it's right, does not make it so. We need to be thinking along the lines of Lufthansa and SQ. How do you achieve lower cost base while retaining a premium product, without a low-cost unit subsidising or cannibalising your market share?

LH still isn't doing it the right way, but I agree with the look towards SQ, which uses a brutally-effective hub to funnel connecting passengers, young efficient aircraft to keep costs low, and invests in a world-leading soft and hard product.

Bam.

QFi doesn't have the luxury of a powerful hub, but it can forward hub using a mixture of 'scissor' hubs (i.e. SIN for one-stop Europe flights) and then 'portal' or 'gateway' hubs to codeshare onwards from (e.g. PVG for China).

It can, however, definitely use the soft product, hard product and young aircraft methods.

This is what the new EBA is all about, right?