Australians are known as a laid back bunch. And who knows: maybe compared to America’s 4am rising CEOs we are. But when it comes to our domestic airlines, we’re picky. This is because we haven’t had as much of a race to the bottom as America, and we are used to having things pretty comfortable. For years we’ve had Qantas and Virgin Australia as our comfortable airlines, and TigerAir, Jetstar and Rex as our cheap airlines.
After COVID smashed the industry like a wrecking ball, however, the landscape changed. Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration, then was reborn with a middle-market focus.