Sir Richard Branson has stepped up his attack on Qantas by taking out full page newspaper adverts warning that any Government financial help for the airline would discourage investment in Australia.
The adverts appeared in News Corporation newspapers yesterday with Branson insisting any handout would “severely damage competition in Australia, encourage others to ask for handouts and companies worldwide would think twice before investing in Australia”,
It follows the British entrepreneur’s comments that Qantas was in “deep shit” for its obsession with maintaining 65% share of the domestic market.
In sentiments that echoed a statement issued by Virgin Australia last week, Branson wrote that Qantas should not be granted “further special privileges over all of its competitors”. He said treasurer Joe Hockey’s description of Virgin as a “2,000-pound gorilla” was “laughable” given that Qantas is four times the size of Virgin Australia.
“Qantas has gone to its shareholders on numerous occasions over the last few years to wage its capacity war against us,” he wrote in the adverts. “Now that the shareholders have turned that tap off, the company is turning to the Australia taxpayer to try to bail it out.”
Hockey last week hinted that the Government was looking sympathetically on Qantas’s plight and suggested it would offer a debt guarantee. Prime Minister Tony Abbott also said he was prepared to lift regulations which limit the foreign ownership of Qantas.
Branson and Virgin Australia both said they have no objection to altering the Qantas Sale Act.
