Michael Pascoe writes:

As Qantas maintenance workers prepare to
strike after the airline’s union-bashing management called off talks, Crikey’s effort
to Save the Roo has been boosted with more info on where Qantas’s biggest cost
disadvantage lies.

Singapore Airlines’ 2004/05 annual report shows that CEO Chew Choon Seng does indeed give SIA an unfair advantage over
Qantas. He’s working for just $1.6 million Singaporean dollars
a year – how unfair and unjust is that? Singaporean dollars! I’d have to suspect that there might be a
bonus or something somewhere along the line, but it looks like he’s
undercutting Cathay Pacific pay rates as well.

And this Forbes
profile shows what a cheap and tight-fisted CEO Mr Chew must be – further
disadvantaging Qantas when it has to pay Geoff Dixon $6 million a year to sit
at the head of the table.

Emirates, not being a public company,
doesn’t disclose what’s in the chief
pilot’s lunchbox, but I’m reasonably
reliably informed there was shock and surprise in that corner when the $6
million Dixon meal was mentioned.

Yes, Roo fans, Qantas has to try harder to compete
on a more equal footing with other airlines, so sorry, Geoff, there’s no
alternative but to outsource you. Maybe that’s why the federal government has
been trying to arrange a merger with SIA – it’s all about saving money on the
CEO.