Look past the lame service and Qantas is still one of the safest airlines in the world, so last week’s news about a scare over the Philippines isn’t that big of a deal.

Of course, I’m assuming that Geoff “must save money, we’re going bankrupt!” Dixon and his management aren’t to blame for, I don’t know, maybe running a plane that was in poor condition. After all, that’s the best explanation for part of its skin ripping off. And thus it is that the Australian news reports were asking questions about maintenance, interviewing union officials, that kind of thing.

But I actually saw the story first in the San Francisco Chronicle, and barely a few sentences into their AP article: “An official at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, who spoke on condition of anonymity … said initial reports show it was not related to terrorism.”

Dear Macquarie Bank,

Please buy Perth Airport. No, really, please.

The current owners are so spineless they’d probably hand over control if you so much as sneezed in their direction.

All you need to do is get your airports fund to weave some of that debt-engineering magic for desperately-needed upgrades — there’s even a decade-old master plan to tell you what needs to be done. Then you could start talking to people like Gulf Air or EgyptAir and set Perth up as a transit point for Melburnians going to Africa or the Mid-East.

This would be far better than the current upgrade strategy: an extra carpark from the airport’s owners, and a patch-up of the terminal owned by Qantas, who announced yesterday that they’re splurging $50m for an entire two extra check-in counters, a single new aerobridge, and a single new baggage carousel. Whoop-de-freakin’-do.

Unlike Qantas management, you’ve shown yourselves able to locate Perth on a map (even if just for your failed Alinta bid; ’tis a shame, since the winning offer is so very messy). Despite the criticism of what you’ve done at Sydney Airport, I really don’t think your management could be anything but better than what we’ve currently got.

Sincerely,
a disgruntled Perthling and airport user

P.S. while I’ve got your attention, have you been speaking to the PM lately? All this talk of hoarding away tax dollars sounds like he’s trying to turn the Commonwealth into an investment bank or something.