Fed: Passengers to notice no difference after Qantas sale: Dixon

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-2006
Fed: Passengers to notice no difference after Qantas sale: Dixon

MELBOURNE, Dec 15 AAP - Qantas boss Geoff Dixon says passengers will notice no difference
following the sale of the airline and that rather than being broken up, he expects the
national carrier to grow.

Concerns have been raised about the future of Qantas following its acceptance of an
$11.1 million takeover bid from an Australian and international consortium.

Mr Dixon denied the airline would be split up and sold off.

"We have no plans to sell off any of the assets at the moment, certainly we have no
plans ever to break the airline up or to sell off any major part of the airline, the operating
airline itself," he told ABC radio.

"I can guarantee that."

Mr Dixon said passengers would notice no difference to service and there would be no
changes to Frequent Flyer points.

He said job losses were not inevitable but Qantas needed to become more efficient to
retain a competitive edge.

"I couldn't guarantee jobs the day before yesterday when it was still in public ownership.

I have always said that," Mr Dixon said.

"But what I can guarantee is that if we are efficient and become more efficient we'll
be able to grow jobs.

"I really do not make any apology for the fact that Qantas has to be more efficient
every day it can be because it's a tough business."

Mr Dixon said Qantas had been undervalued by the Australian sharemarket, considering
its performance.

He said he expected both Qantas and its budget spin-off Jetstar to grow.

"I expect Jetstar to be probably close to 10 times bigger than it is in four or five
years time in sheer growth," he said.

"But that doesn't mean Qantas won't grow - Qantas will grow."

Mr Dixon said he hoped to bring maintenance parts of the business that were currently
in countries such as the Philippines back to Australia.

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KEYWORD: QANTAS DIXON

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