Maybe its a cultural thing but I just can't take those uniforms seriously. I saw them walk through SYD recently and it was like a high school marching band from the US midwest in the 1950s.

The QR refusal was one of the dominos that led (fairly or otherwise) to the whole Qantas debacle last Spring. Politically, the timing will never be better for QR to make another application.

The hardest working person in aviation is TK's Australian publicist.I get that they would want to capitalise on the European summer but March 2024 seems awfully close to launch an entire new market and brand campaign, particularly with the scheduling of one of the world's most in-demand names.

Fun fact on Qantas to Chicago, every time they have tried to launch it is has preceded an unprecedented aviation downturn. They first announced it as a tag on MEL-LAX shortly before 9/11. Then the BNE-ORD route from before Covid. Third time's the charm I guess.

It's buried in the second last para of the press release, but these are completely freelance and hypothetical. The interior (magazine rack!) is not well designed for public transport capacity needs; and it's hard to envisage any municipal government unleashing driver-less trams on shared tracks, ...