Not the song and dance about maintenance again. It cists QF a lot less to have their aircraft maintained overseas than it does in Australia. Again because the salary base is so disproportionate. Love how any tine there is a maintenance mishap their union jumps up and down, but they neglect to tell thw public that the vast majority of the aircraft having mishaps are actually maintained in Australia. They have to lower their cost base, or all those people with super salaries will be out of a job.

 

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I agree. Before the demise of Ansett ( before ANZ joined the debacle), Ansett sent the 767's to Christchurch for maintenance, a Union requirement was that 6 engineers form Ansett in OZ must travel with the plane.

The Engine Center was right across the road from the Russley golf course, need I say more.

 

Then the Union members stomped on their toys when Ansett melted down. I have avoided the political angle in my comments for good reason.

Edited February 24, 201412 yr by Badfinger

Not the song and dance about maintenance again. It cists QF a lot less to have their aircraft maintained overseas than it does in Australia. Again because the salary base is so disproportionate. Love how any tine there is a maintenance mishap their union jumps up and down, but they neglect to tell thw public that the vast majority of the aircraft having mishaps are actually maintained in Australia. They have to lower their cost base, or all those people with super salaries will be out of a job.

 

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I couldn't have said it better myself. Some good comments here.

The discussion is apples and pears.

Airlines like Qantas do not operate from the same base as other airlines, or indeed, other businesses.

When you try to operate it like a hot dog stand, you discover it is actually a large dole queue, and locked into the national wellbeing.

 

When you are an executive concerned with your end of contract parachute, all you have to do is create a bottom line golden enough to survive your term.

The thousands of local jobs axed as a result have to be somehow absorbed by the nation, so the national interest can't really be written out of the equation.

I've stopped using Qantas in the firm belief that a disgruntled workforce is not the foundation on which to operate a safe and successful airline. BA went through the same phase.

 

Whatever, the airline business is filled with more obfuscation than any other, here's a quote from the OP link which made me boggle completely. It concerns VA's new A330:

 

"Because it comes in September, I would probably like to have it in the selling system for wherever we're sending it to over the next couple of months, so we can maximise all of those revenue opportunities."  

 

Ehh... say what?? That's Virgin's chief commercial officer talking.

Today is (if you live on the Eastern seaboard of Australia it is now Thursday 27th Feb 2014) the day QANTAS releases its financial results and will make an announcement.

 

In the last 72 hours it seems there has been a flurry of activity over at QANTAS with changes being made faster than the speed skaters at the Sochi Olympics could take a lap!

 

So here is the latest update: Expect more throughout today.

 

 

http://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/coalition_to_axe_qantas_foreign_WOYD7keNWV3gVk0uwyQJhK

 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/housekeeping-at-qantas-likely-to-cost-5000-jobs/story-e6frg95x-1226838719417#

 

One element I heard on TV/Radio was that aircraft are going to be retired early. My assumption will be 10 percent of the fleet to be parked up and/or sold for cost reductions. The money QANTAS is making is in its Regional Airline and that comes from the TV. It seems Virgin must have leveled the Domestic City sectors playing field. QANTAS is under severe pressure to compete now, and this is a good thing for consumers but not good for unions or especially employees. It isn't good for Alan Joyce either who finds it difficult to negotiate with three different unions and then have regulations and other obstacles as well.

 

EDIT: The 767s in QANTAS fleet, most of them retired are due for retirement anyway. Still not a bad aircraft though, but I wonder is it as fuel efficient as an A330-200?

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/qantas-ceo-alan-joyce-announces-5000-jobs-cuts/story-fnkgde2y-1226839078101

 

 

"QANTAS has confirmed it will cut 5000 jobs, after announcing a $252 million half-year loss."

Yup, next step is, the Unions will urge the remaining workers to go on strike so an airline that cannot affort to keep those employees continues to bleed money. When it all goes belly up, they will blame everyone else. This is a time when they all have to work together. There are some hard decisions to be made here, but they must be made or everyone will lose.

 

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Or they could just raise prices.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0226/506866-qantas-job-cuts/

 

I knew there had to be an Irish connection somewhere :(

Not his fault really, Qantas was a basket case under Dixon. It was no surprise that every board and shareholder meeting was held at a different city in the world, within Qantas' network (true story). At least Joyce stands up and faces the music. The airline is in dire straits and has been for years. It cannot compete with the International airlines now servicing Australia and the suggestions of raising prices is a good one, if you want to kill it off faster.

 

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Ba had the same problem a few years ago. I felt sorry for Willy Walsh then and I feel sorry for Qantas now.  and i'm putting on my tin hat for this..

 

When you have flight attendants on more an a new f/o you know you have problems.

 

The only problem is you cant just sack all your senior flight attendants, but at some point they have to realise they are unqualified vocational workers (i know I was one for 10 years) and the golden goose cant keep laying eggs.

 

Im not a fan of striking, but I can also see the old dogs point of view, if youre a 40 year old ex flight attendant, with no other qualifications, you are going to find it impossible to get another job for what they have been earning.

 

 Not only that but you will find it hard to get a job at all.  I remember being 31 with 10 years experience of serving tea and coffee, best i could get was an restaurant manager job. So I came into my airlines office.  And truth me know, id be buggered if I got made redundant now in my mid 30s...So I can see the staffs view.

 

You've only   got to look at Iberia (before BA got them) and Iberia , they also have the same problem.  

 

 

I remember getting of my Virgin Atlantic flight at LAX, all the virgin staff being aged 20-30 and all on crap money, then you see BA, Qantas, and Iberia in the crew hotel getting their envelopes and getting a HUGE amount in allowances, all of them 40/50/60 year old dragons on a rediclous wage, and we all did the same job. Madness..

 

Airlines are there to make money, I feel sorry for the staff but its 2014 and not the 1980s...

Then kill it. It's just part of the circle of death. You folks in Australia are entering the circle of death that we in America are starting to realize that we are caught in. People ravenously seek their goods and services at only lower and lower prices. Businesses are forced to cut quality and costs to meet this expectation. People then wonder why their jobs are outsourced, their working middle class is declining into poverty and they can only afford cheap goods and services. The people of Australia will have only themselves to blame when they wake up one day and realize there are few jobs to be had and their quality of life is worse than before. It is a fate that awaits you. We are well ahead of you on that path here in the US.

Do what Rio Tinto did.

Sack the lot of them and make them re-apply for their jobs, giving QANTAS a chance to restructure without unions.....

If they get this done now then they will be ale to grow later because the playing field is more even.

 

Though Rio was fed up with unions for striking over pink icecrem.......

But a train driver earns around $200K now, no unions!

 

On the radio 2GB today there was talk of managers of QANTAS (1500 of them!!) giving themselves reviews, justifying their positions. What a waste, all a culture of bureaucracy from Government days where there was a position merely created by another bureaucrat and not justified.

 

And flight attendants being paid $120K a year on QANTAS while VA, SQ and EK all are under $50K. I thought VA FAs were only on $38K a year and thats including OT. This was all on 2GB today, Ray Hadley and Chris Smith. Steve Price also.

ba at egkk now is an all time low a new f/a is on 

• Basic salary starts at £11,585 pro rata
• Hourly flying rate £2.60

so down the back of the cabin they are earning £18000 gbp a year, the cabin manager or csd whatever they are called nowadays will be on 40-50 if they joined before 1997... the f/o probably 35 -40 and the captain 90 - 150 K 

 

that is why ba is knackered....they are just hosteys and just drivers.... 

Kevin the circle of death is your catch phrase. The fact is Australia does very well and so does the USA when unions are not allowed to hold companies to ransom.

 

SPC, Toyota, Ford, Holden, QANTAS, the building industry.....the list goes on and on. All killed by unions causing their employees to be way overpaid for the job they do and extremely generous conditions!

 

Think about that rather than your circle of death. In fact, the circle of death is union POWER! Nothing else.

 

When the unions were taken out of the equation in NW WA the mining industry took off. Little wonder. It is basic economics and industrial relations. And wages skyrocketed once unions were cast aside....it is market based. Demand and supply. If you go to a communist system where everything is controlled by a central agency (the state) then as well as being extremely inefficient there is no investment or development because investors are unable to operate under state owned rules.

You've completely missed my point. I said nothing about unions in that post. And actually, unions have little if any power. There is nothing unions can do to prevent downsizing and off shoring to cut costs. The decline in the American standard of living, and soon yours as well, is caused by the expectation of the general population that whatever goods or service they consume has to be provided at ever cheaper prices.