Michael Sainsbury

2 weeks ago | michaelwest.com.au | Michael Sainsbury |Michael West

CEO Vanessa Hudson’s strategy of making Qantas a majority low-cost airline has become with the closure of Jetstar Asia subsidiary. The unions are not happy, Michael Sainsbury reports. Vanessa Hudson’s strategic vision is facing pushback from increasingly restive pilot unions as Qantas continues to quietly move mainline routes to Jetstar and other subsidiaries, where flight deck and cabin crews are paid about 30% less.

2 weeks ago | crikey.com.au | Michael Sainsbury

Boeing’s safety record has once again been thrust into the spotlight following the catastrophic crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Ahmedabad to London on June 12. The disaster, which claimed 241 lives and left a single survivor, is the first fatal accident involving the 787 since its introduction in 2011 — rekindling global concern over Boeing’s engineering standards and oversight. The American manufacturer has been here before.

2 weeks ago | crikey.com.au | Michael Sainsbury

Telstra went full Trump last month, doubling down in the face of rival provider Vodafone’s apparently incontrovertible evidence that Telstra has been massively gilding the lily on its “market-leading” mobile coverage. But what the controversy has really done is expose the still-dreadful state of mobile phone coverage in regional Australia. But satellite networks, led by Elon Musk’s Starlink, may finally be coming to the rescue.

1 month ago | crikey.com.au | Michael Sainsbury

Transport Minister Catherine King has named “preserving regional aviation” as one of her top priorities for the next three years. Meanwhile a deadline looms for flailing regional airline Rex, with its year-long voluntary administration due to end on June 30.

1 month ago | michaelwest.com.au | Michael Sainsbury |Michael West

AI is screaming down the streaming pipe for local musicians but industry titans such as Spotify are not fixing it. Michael Sainsbury reports. When Grammy-nominated Australian musician Paul Bender, was innocently checking Spotify for his side project, The Sweet Enoughs – whose most popular track has had more than 6 million streams – he noticed something strange: a track he didn’t recognise had appeared on his artist page.