With the benefit of hindsight it is clear the banks that provided Qantas with $1.75 billion in emergency debt in June were a lot smarter than the institutional and retail investors that provided $1.36 billion in equity.

The debt investors have the benefit of receiving interest of about 2.75 per cent per annum. From the moment they stumped up the money, their return on capital was obvious and their capital was secured against Qantas aircraft.