re recent announcement, page-2

Steve not sure I share your confidence on the February stats.

Firstly RPKs and ASKs are what actually was flown in February. ASKs aren't future capacity, they are all the seats that VAH put in the air in February and just as you say RPKs = Income (well revenue anyway) ASKs = Cost.

So when domestic load factor (RPKs/ASKs)drops by 3.6% that is not good news. It's true that yields are stronger up 13.7% or thereabouts for domestic in the half yearly report but if load factors continue to fall all of that will be gobbled up pretty quickly. Remember their non-fuel Cost per ASK was up 4.7% at the half yearly too.

Cost is the killer in the airline business.

Agree that International is too radically different from last year to draw any kind of conclusions on these stats.

Everyone knows JB can put on a good product for business people (I still shake my head in disbelief as I try to decide between French Champagnes in the QF First Class International lounge in Sydney), can he do it and control the cost so that this is ultimately profitable?

Maybe ... Maybe not.