-It has probably been hard for JAL to make necessary changes to its way of doing business for ‘cultural’ reasons.

-Airlines are starting to really react against the ownership and control regimes embedded in bilaterals and reflected in municipal laws; the various offshore permutations of Jetstar are reflective of this; branding and/or alliances are important in this and allow the appearance of a network and achievement of some of the scale and scope economies of an international network without majority ownership and control of all its components; that said, it is interesting that the Australian Government’s White Paper contemplates alternatives, such as ‘place of business’, to majority ownership and control in future bilaterals.

-Airlines can get at least some of the overseas cost advantages of better placed overseas airlines. For example, by offshore maintenance; it is hard, though, to duplicate the network structure advantages offered by midpoint hubs in Singapore, Middle East and equivalent locations.

-Hopefully airline workforces understand the implications of what Christopher Findlay is saying