Right now, Australia hates Qantas. But it won't last long
Qantas passengers queued at Sydney Airport last month. Photo: Louise Kennerley Frank Zappa is always great for quotes. The legendary jazz-rockers of the ’60s usually had something to say, mostly insightful, sometimes quirky. I’ve always loved his quotes about the country, and what defines it. “You can’t be a real country,” he said, “unless you have beer, and airlines.” It’s kind of a throwaway line, but it rings true right away. Of course, that’s discounting all the beautiful countries where they don’t drink beer, and he keeps mentioning nuclear weapons, but let’s ignore that for a second. Here in Australia at least, we can understand it. We have a lot of different beers, and we are quite proud of them (if at times an understatement). And we also have airlines. Qantas. Without realizing it, we are proud of Qantas, and what the airline says about us as a nation. This is a startup company, a successful c...