About 18 months ago, Australia had a nice comfy duopoly in airline service. Qantas, the legend, flew everyone, everywhere. Ansett, the competitor, challenged them and kept them honest (but not too honest, or they wouldn't have made a tidy buck themselves)

Then Air New Zealand decided they wanted in on the Australian market. They bought Ansett, perhaps as a step to their own globalisation, but certainly with profit in mind. To fund this, they took on debt.

Within 6 months, the financial bubble of Air New Zealand burst. Too much debt, too few performing assets. The usual story...

The way out of this mess was remarkable. They assett-stripped Ansett, and threw the carcase back as a bankrupt company in its own right. Essentially, they denied any responsibility for Ansett, or even their ownership of it.

Air New Zealand survived their own stupidity, but Australia lost its second airline.

Today, Qantas has no meaningful competition, and I pay double compared to 12 months ago for flights, except for the simplest and most competitive routes, where Virgin is there as a competitor and Qantas just happens to equal their prices.

The Moral of this story?

Businessmen have lower morals than you can imagine, and more money, but who can say where it came from?