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Qantas Makes Long Awaited Project Sunrise Breakthrough

Qantas’ pilots have voted in favour of a new pay deal that will cover proposed non-stop flights to London and New York from Australia’s East Coast. This is a breakthrough moment for Project Sunrise, which Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has maintained would only go ahead if commercially viable at each stage along the process.With Qantas’ international pilot’s group finally on board (according to Australian Aviation, they’ve been “locked talks for months”) with the plan to launch ultra long haul flights from Sydney and Melbourne in 2023, this is a milestone for the Australian carrier’s grand ambitions, even if it comes in the most testing times (Project Sunrise is currently on hold because of COVID 19, which has devastated the travel industry worldwide).As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald: “Qantas had a March deadline to place a multibillion-dollar order with Airbus for a new fleet of up to 12 A350-1000s jets to operate what would be the longest commercial flights in the world. The carrier said it needed pilots to agree to a new pay deal which included ‘productivity benefits’ to make the Project Sunrise business case stack up before it could make the order.”Hence the significance of today: March the 30th.

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A post shared by Qantas (@qantas) on Oct 14, 2019 at 4:00pm PDT

This comes after Qantas, last month, “threatened to hire a separate workforce of pilots if they rejected the deal” The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Today, however, Qantas wrote to pilots “confirming the new enterprise bargaining agreement had been voted up, with 85 per cent backing the deal,” The Sydney Morning Herald reports.“Reaching an agreement … means that we have now met the flight operations component of the Project Sunrise business case,” Qantas chief pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in an email to pilots, seen by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.“The extraordinary circumstances facing aviation has seen Airbus agree to extend the deadline on our decision to purchase the A350s so we can focus on navigating the coronavirus crisis.”

“When this period has passed, and it will, we will refocus our attention on Project Sunrise and the A350 order.”

Though it’s not been formally announced, delivery of the jets and the launch of the first Project Sunrise flights is slated to be in 2023, Executive Traveller reports.

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#ProjectSunrise update: We’ve selected the #Airbus A350-1000 as our preferred aircraft for our plans to fly non-stop from the east coast of Australia to #London and #NewYork. Read more via the link in our bio.

A post shared by Qantas (@qantas) on Dec 12, 2019 at 2:45pm PST

But for now, Qantas’ focus, like all airlines right now, is navigating the industry upheaval that has come with the Coronavirus pandemic, which has seen Qantas ground its entire international fleet and scale its domestic flights down to about 10 per cent of regular capacity (due to flight bans and plummetting demand).This has involved introducing a flight credit policy (and then extending it to include more customers) and handing out a 12-month frequent flyer status extension to frequent flyers who this year would have been unable to complete the requisite miles to keep their status.

Working from home

This is one of the major changes that’s been forced on almost all desk jockeys. It’s likely your company or business is relying on Zoom (ZM) or Microsoft Teams (MSFT) both listed inthe US to enable you to communicate, meet and engage with colleagues and clients. All that data needs a home and its home is in a data centre. NextDC (NXT) is Australia’s primary listed player, however there are global names, Equinix (EQIX), Interxion (IXIN) and Digital Reality (DLR) that operate in Australia and around the world.

Shopping

Many of us have had to setup home offices or mobile workstations. Officeworks (owned by Wesfarmers, ASX code WES), JB HiFi (JBH) and Harvey Norman (HVN) are surely seeing a surge in sales this quarter. You are also likely sourcing a lot more of your ‘stuff’ online. The king of online is Amazon (AMZN) but there’s second and third derivatives of this trend.More online payments may benefit payments beasts like PayPal (PYPL) and/or Square (SQ).Perhaps our new obsession with hygiene drives global adoption of “tap and go” technology from Visa (V) and Mastercard (MC). How will our national shopping centres fair during this period? A protracted shut-down of non-essential retail could impact our nations landlords as their tenants’ close shop, ask for rent reductions and stop demanding temporary space.Some examples of shopping centre landlords include: Charter Hall (CQR), Vicinity Centres (VCX), Abacus Property Group (ABP), Shopping Centres Australia (SCP), and Westfield (URW). Similarly, those retailers who are still operating a primarily “in store” business model could face hard times, while their predominantly “online” competitors take market share. Discretionary spending in general may decline as unemployment rises and people tighten their belts.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Software you can’t live without. I haven’t spoken to Luc, the boss at DMARGE, but I can guarantee you he’s paying his Adobe (ADBE) Creative Suite subscription fees next month before he goes and gets a haircut or buys another pair of expensive loafers!Same goes for accounting software like Xero (XRO) in my opinion. I personally couldn’t run my business without it. For me, same goes for market data related providers like IRESS (IRE) and Factset (FDS).

Isolation

I don’t know about you, but I’m not cancelling my Netflix (NFLX), Spotify (SPOT) or Amazon Prime (AMZN, again) right now. It’s like a great pair of jeans. It doesn’t really matter how much you spend, your cost per wear is so low and you’re getting more value out of these subscriptions than ever.As for Foxtel, Kayo or that fedora you bought for the races in 2012… not so much.I’d think a few gym memberships are getting the chop as well (hopefully you’re staying healthy and working out at home/in the park). This isn’t good news for the likes of Ardent Leisure (ALG) who own Goodlife and a bunch of other gyms in Australia.

Get woke

This is more of a personal favourite, but I love companies that do the right thing. I think it’s smart business and can generate immeasurable goodwill from the community. Think about investing in businesses that are handling this crisis best. I loved Nike’s (NKE) “Play Inside” strategy and Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (MC on the Paris Stock Exchange) have also handled this beautifully. Converting perfume factories to make hand sanitiser and ordering 40m health masks to give to the French health service. Both are excellent examples of corporate leadership. I’d back both to be equally excellent when it comes to reinvesting my capital in their business.This article is of a general nature only and does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider the appropriateness of the information in light of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it and obtain copies of any relevant disclosure documents. Seneca Financial Solutions does not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information in this report. Luke Laretive, Seneca Financial Solutions, it’s Directors and it’s associated entities may have or had interests in companies mentioned. They may have or have had a relationship with or may provide or has provided investment banking, capital markets and/or other financial services to those companies mentioned. Luke provides clients with a daily note, which you can access here.

Timbaland

If you’re a fan of hip hop and RnB, then you’ll likely know who Timbaland is. The record producer, rapper and songwriter has worked with some of the biggest names around, including Jay Z, Beyoncé, Madonna and Drake. In 12 lessons, Timbaland will take you through the processes of working with vocalists, layering tracks together and ultimately creating beats to keep you hooked.View This Course

Christina Aguilera

When it comes to vocal range, Christina Aguilera consistently ranks among the very best. The five-time Grammy Award winner will teach how to control your breathing, how best to warm-up your voice before tackling a song, and how she delivers her trademark growls. View This Course

Tom Morello

Tom Morello is responsible for creating one of the biggest bands in rock music history: Rage Against The Machine. The guitarist – who ranks among Rolling Stone’s greatest of all time – is on hand to teach you the iconic riffs that catapulted him to stardom, along with his trademark solos. Not only that, but he will take you through the approach to writing songs that made him famous. View This Course

Herbie Hancock

If you’d rather try your hands at tickling the ivory, what better than to have legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock guide you through the ways of the piano, from improvising solos, to composing full scores. View This Course

Hans Zimmer

In the world of film scores, Hans Zimmer is without doubt one of the most recognised and revered in the industry. He’s been responsible for creating soundtracks for over 150 films, including The Dark Knight and Inception. In this 31-lesson course, Hans will show you how to create theme tunes for specific characters, how to get inventive with creating new sounds, and creating music for a film before you’ve even seen it. View This Course

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Could The Great Barrier Reef Benefit From The Current Travel Ban?

During the pandemic, a lot of travel plans were scrapped. This led to crystal clear waters (if not dolphins) in Venice, iconic Balinese surf breaks uncrowded like the 1960s and an exodus of selfie sticks from Machu Picchu.These benefits got us pondering: could there be a silver lining to COVID-19 hitting Australia? Could the travel ban give the Great Barrier Reef a much-needed break from anchors, pollution and wayward flippers? Is a dearth of tourism always good for the environment?Yes and no. Yes, in that there will be a pause in tourism, and no in that it’s not much-needed. Quite the opposite, actually. Why? Allow Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Chief Scientist Dr David Wachenfeld to explain.

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A post shared by Ocean • Wildlife • Travel (@maxence.photography) on Mar 26, 2020 at 7:08pm PDT

“Although The Great Barrier Reef gets about two million visitors per year, those visitors are visiting a marine park that’s bigger than two-thirds of countries on the planet,” Mr Wachenfeld told DMARGE over the phone.“The visitation is concentrated mainly in two parts of the park,” Mr Wachenfeld added. “The actual density of visitation is really quite low, so the impact of tourism on The Great Barrier Reef is negligible.”

“I actually think that tourism has a very positive impact on the great barrier reef.”

“As far as I have ever encountered, everybody who has ever visited and seen The Great Barrier Reef falls in love with the place, and goes away with a stronger commitment to the [its] protection… and the environment more generally.”

“[Tourists] go home with a stronger commitment to act on climate change and protect the reef [which is] not only good for Australian economy but also good for the future and the health of the reef.”

Instead of under tourism, the biggest threat to the reef is climate change – a global problem, not a local one. That and insufficient funding to the reef’s protection agencies (which we thought would suffer in this time of non-existent tourism).

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A post shared by Lisa Walter (@lisawltr) on Mar 21, 2020 at 2:47pm PDT

Mr Wachenfeld quickly set us straight: “I don’t think that’s [loss of revenue for the protection agencies] an issue in as much as although, yes, visitors to the reef do pay an environmental management charge, and that charge does go to agencies that protect the reef, [the] government has committed to fix up that shortfall.”

“Not having visitors isn’t going to affect the funding of reef protection.”

What it is going to affect, is the Australian economy, to which the reef contributes, under normal circumstances, 6.4 billion dollars and supports 64,000 jobs.“The vast majority of that economy is from the tourism industry so the lack of visitors will obviously mean that the tourism industry isn’t operating while the COVID 19 restrictions are in place. That’s quite a substantial issue for the Australian economy throughout central, southern and far northern Queensland.”How you can help? Other than social distancing and doing your part to help this situation blow over as quickly and with as little damage possible, what you can do once travel restrictions get relaxed, Mr Wachenfeld told us, is come and see the reef and contribute to its economy and, by extension, maintenance.

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The best place to quarantine? Fly over the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef. Land on a private helipad/pontoon. The custom built glass bottom boat is lowered into the water and exits the pontoon in a very James Bond style then takes you for a tour of Hardy Lagoon. Visit heart reef, snorkel the coral bombies in the lagoon, enjoy bubbles on the lounges inside or on the sundeck and then fly back over the reef and islands as you leave .⠀ .⠀ By @ashleighbridget cc ⠀ @hamiltonislandair #MillionaireLifestyle ⠀ #heartisland #quarantine #greatbarrierreef #australia #heli #chopper #helicopter #secluded #whitsundayislanfs #lagoon #turquoise #reef #pontoon #quarantina #socialdistance #stayhome #stayinghome #luxurious #design #luxury #lifestyle

A post shared by Millionaire Lifestyle (@millionaire.life.style) on Mar 22, 2020 at 11:16am PDT

This all comes in a context where the greatest threat to the reef is climate change. As The Guardian reported last week, “Heat stress has been building across the length of the reef this summer” with many tourism operators, tourists and recreational divers recounting “severe bleaching.”The problem with this (one of them, anyway) is that the reef cannot simply migrate south, being destroyed at one end and regrowing at another. Not just because the colder areas in the south of Australia are also warming (as Mr Wachenfeld told us, “we’ve seen tropical animals and fish show themselves further south than they traditionally have”) – but because “there are already wonderful ecosystems in those southern marine areas,” which themselves are suffering.

“There are fantastically beautiful kelp forests around Tasmania which have suffered terribly because of marine heatwaves.”

“The fact that there might be some coral growing a bit further south than it used to is not really a compensation for what we’ve losing in those more temperate areas,” Mr Wachenfeld told us. On top of that, there’s a second problem with this idea that the reef can simply extend downwards if it gets too hot up north: it will run out of room.“The Great Barrier Reef as a geological structure exists where it does in part because the continental shelf is very wide, so there is a big area of shallow ocean, only about 100m deep, that sticks off the north east coast of Australia. But south of the Great Barrier Reef, the continental shelf doesn’t do that so there is nothing for The Great Barrier Reef to move south onto.”

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A post shared by Holidayguru.ch (@holidayguru_ch) on Feb 10, 2020 at 8:20am PST

“In other words, you might get a few corals growing on the coastline further south than you used to but there is absolutely no-where for a structure even vaguely like the Great Barrier Reef to grow in the southern coastal areas of Australia,” Mr Wachenfeld told us.

“If we want to have a Great Barrier Reef, we’re going to need to lift our game.”