Roger,
I obviously realise that this is the Qantas trash thread. However - are you sure that their fleet is that inefficient? Just came back from a trip to Singapore flying Qantas (to my excuse - had to use up some Frequent flyer points) and was flying with A330-200 and Boeing 737-800. Both have a fuel consumption of roughly 2.3l per 100 passenger km. Not too bad.
Just some other observations: While I rated Qantas previously lower in terms of service and comfort than e.g. Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Emirates (and I used to fly a lot - i.e. I can compare), my recent experience (after something like 3 years abstinence on Qantas) seems to point to Qantas moving back into this top group. It feels like the partnership with Emirates is influencing them quite positively.
I like the 30kg luggage allowance which they adapted from Emirates (i.e. no need to worry about the luggage - on my last trip with AIR I still had to worry about the (I think) 23 kg limit with AIR.
Their seats have been new (and not too bad for economy), the crew was in 3 out of the four legs exceptionally helpful and friendly, food is as good (or bad) as on the other "better" carriers.
Don't want to annoy anybody on this thread, but it might be even for AIR investors useful information that AIR might not be the only good airline.
I put Qantas after this last experience back into the group of my preferred carriers (i.e. might accrue some more frequent flyer points with them ;)).