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OzJet boss fires parting shot
As the fallout continues from the collapse of Business class carrier OzJet, owner Paul Stoddart has levelled the blame for the carriers demise fairly and squarely on the shoulders of his Chief Executive, Hans van Pelt.
Commenting earlier this week, Stoddart said the projections that he started with were 75 per cent off in terms of revenue and they could not be sustained long-term.
“Predominantly, I suppose, the buck stops with the chief executive,” Mr Stoddart said.
Mr Stoddart admitted he had been too busy with the sale of Minardi last year to keep a close watch on the new airline. Mr Stoddart revealed OzJet had been losing, at best, $100,000 a day. At worst the figure was more like $140,000.
“To be honest, I should have had my finger on the ball perhaps,” he said.
The biggest lesson from the experience was to check things out yourself, he said.
Perhaps the bigger issue is that OzJet started with a flawed business model from day one. An ill-timed launch pre Xmas, inflexible schedules, a marketing campaign that missed the mark and operating on routes dominated by established carriers with loyalty schemes and lounges for business travellers.
A chastened Stoddart, who has just seen more than $10 million go up in smoke with his OzJet experiment, sees the market like this: “What, sadly, I think you’ve got, is a two-airline legacy going back to the Ansett and TAA days. I don’t think anyone’s going to break into that.”
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