"Which is why instead of dramatically going for both the customers and the unions in one grandstanding hit, why didn’t Alan Joyce announce that unless the intolerable provocation of protected industrial action was ended forthwith by Fair Work Australia, he would indeed, have no option but to lock out both the customers and workers early the following week in order bring matters to a head, as Qantas was entitled to do, in law, but without causing so much misery to everyone. Joyce would have achieved precisely what he achieved with the grounding, without costing the company anything like the same amount of money, without ruining the travel arrangements of 70,000 passengers, and without inflicting the longer term damage to the reputation and brand of Qantas which he says was miraculously totally 100% reversed and even further improved by the end of last November."
Last edited by fishers.ghost; 6th Nov 2012 at 22:10.
'Having people do maintenance on aircraft that doesn't need maintenance - and no other airline in the world does that - is not viable.
In my opinion it is just the unwinding of a long plan to wind up engineers in Oz, especially after GD lost face with them during the bitter dispute during EBA 8 (enter CN). We have all seen this coming and are not stupid, they just wont let us in on the grand plan.
Surely no-one is silly enough to believe that new planes require no maint, or that the new B1 system is a solution by halving the workforce.
Surely no-one is silly enough to believe that new planes require no maint
The rumor (being PPRuNe) I hear it is that the "NG" A380 - 12 aircraft take up approximately 50% of QF's maintenance costs. Could this be the reason they shelved the later orders? But of course it is unlikely we will ever have any factual evidence or confirmation of this slip of the tongue.
fischers.ghost, go back and read my post #1144 in this thread. Perhaps things are not always as they seem, perhaps there was another reason for the lock-out. Could the industrial dispute be a smoke screen to justify such an apparently self-defeating act of commercial stupidity. The actions of the lock-out do not appear consistent with the threat, exactly as you say. There are ways to publicly signal certain course of action, yet these were not used. The only conclusion is that the intention was to generate a shock, the question is why? There may be a method to the madness.
Last edited by TheWholeEnchilada; 7th Nov 2012 at 00:00.
Location: not the @r$& end of the earth but can see it from here.
Posts: 955
Crystal, a buyback to me is what boards do when they have spare capital and no idea what to do with it. Sure the share price is down but they have committed a lot of capital on 320s.
$9.6 billion to be exact with no return from any Jetstar franchise to date...in fact quite the opposite..Read the book....Ansett mark two and all self inflicted...
Qantas is cutting another 500 engineering jobs in Sydney and at Avalon Airport in Victoria as the airline steps up the consolidation of its heavy maintenance bases from two to one.
About 200 of the latest job cuts will be to line-maintenance roles at Qantas’s jet base at Sydney Airport and the remainder mostly from heavy maintenance at Avalon Airport near Geelong.
The airline has decided to cut jobs in Sydney because it believes it has an oversupply of line-maintenance engineers. They undertake day-to-day servicing of aircraft.
The latest cuts in Victoria are to engineers who have been reconfiguring Qantas’s nine remaining Boeing 747-400 aircraft. The last of the jumbos will be completed by the end of this month.
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About 250 of the workers to go at Avalon are contractors.
Qantas will also reduce its workforce at Qantas Defence Services which conducts maintenance on the Defence Forces’s C130 Hercules aircraft.
As well, it will consolidate bits engineering training facilities from Melbourne to Sydney. Boosting Brisbane
However, Qantas will boost its workforce at its heavy maintenance base at Brisbane Airport by 100, and the airline has emphasised that the latest cuts will result in a net loss of about 400 jobs.
It takes the total number of jobs axed from Qantas’s engineering operations this year to about 1260, and is a further blow to Victoria’s manufacturing industries.
Qantas closed its heavy maintenance base at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport in August, resulting in the loss of 422 jobs. A further 113 positions have already gone from its other engineering facility at the Lindsay Fox-owned Avalon Airport due to a reduction in the work there.
It will leave engineering workforce at Avalon at several hundred.
The airline has repeatedly flagged that it plans to eventually close the heavy maintenance base at Avalon Airport, and shift the work to its eight-year-old Brisbane base.
Since closing the Tullamarine base, Qantas has shifted work on its 737 fleet to the Brisbane maintenance facility. Avalon will continue to maintain the remaining 747 fleet.
Qantas’s total engineering workforce totals about 5000, some of whom are contractors. Union blasts cuts
The aircraft engineers’ union has described the latest jobs cuts as ‘‘another step towards turning our national carrier into an unsafe airline’’.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association’s federal secretary, Steve Purvinas, said under staffing at the airline was ‘‘becoming dangerous and Qantas management are disregarding basic laws of aviation safety’’.
“It beggars belief that Qantas management's answer to a recent spate of maintenance errors, many being investigated by CASA, is to sack more staff,” he said in a statement.
“Given the rising number of errors and the potentially serious nature of some of these, we’re calling on Qantas to reverse these job cuts.’’
But the chief executive of Qantas’s domestic operations, Lyell Strambi, said the airline’s fleet of more modern planes had reduced the amount of maintenance required.
‘‘Our commitment to setting a global standard for safety and quality in airline maintenance will never change,’’ he said in a statement.
Mr Strambi said the cost of its heavy maintenance was more than 30 per cent higher than Qantas’s competitors, and the airline needed to close the gap to secure its ‘‘future viability’’.
‘‘This restructure will assist in making Qantas maintenance facilities in Australia more competitive,” he said. “Qantas will continue to make further changes to our engineering division as newer technology and improved processes enable us to become more efficient.”
The airline has yet to set a timeline for when it will close the Avalon base, and centralise its engineering operations at one facility in Brisbane.
And those modern A380 aircraft don't need any maintenance at all. Alan you are a d1ckhead who needs to walk through the maintenance areas to see what happens The dugong is the most labour intensive pig in the fleet. Even Mr Harris and Nassenstien agree. The 330s aren't getting any younger, and with pornstar lacking skills and equipment to maintain there fleet who are they going to turn to when the going gets tough?
And are they going to increase numbers when the 330s start coming back?
"In August last year I sent out the five-year plan for Qantas International along with the broader transformation initiatives for the group as a whole. The plan has the goal of returning Qantas international to profit in the short term. It will restore a great Australian airline to financial health, with Jetstar the only Australian-owned international airline serving this country."
I'm easily confused, but to me it looks like Qantas International will be returned to profit in the short term and then be absorbed into Jetstar International because Jetstar will be the only Australian owned international airline.
Does that statement mean that QF International will be history within 5 years?
I was never any good at interpreting corporate doublespeak though.
"Planners looking for 18, yes 18, blokes to work o/t tonight, no takers. Clearly overstaffed alright."
We were doing the same thing in 1989, the solution was then as it is now, that is, get rid of maintenance intensive aircraft and replace them with new aircraft which come with a maintenance honeymoon.
This will happen but unfortunately it would seem that all those brand spankers will be painted silver.
AJ cuts in maintenance is a perfect example of the Swiss cheese model,accident waiting to happen. Hopefully he will be still in charge.
Thanks for your good wishes Bagus. But where I work, I'm in charge and have more to lose than the Leprechaun. Anyway, you guys have my sincere sympathy, and all the best. No doubt we'll be next.
Last edited by Captain Gidday; 8th Nov 2012 at 06:13.
I'm easily confused, but to me it looks like Qantas International will be returned to profit in the short term and then be absorbed into Jetstar International because Jetstar will be the only Australian owned international airline.
Does that statement mean that QF International will be history within 5 years?
I was never any good at interpreting corporate doublespeak though. 8th Nov 2012 12:13
You make a good point, the rhetoric from this guy does my head in...
I think Ben puts some good points down in this piece just in today
"The big concern in America, where it has been discussed in public by air safety officials and politicians for some time, is that as airlines move to lower their maintenance costs they must not be permitted to lower their accountability for maintenance outcomes, which is what the ALAEA is driving at. Tied up with this concern is the ‘loss of control factor’. When airlines send work to a contractor, who in some cases is the engine maker or aircraft maker, they can become the last people to know about a problem."
As I see it, all pilots should be concerned about this aspect as well... at the end of the day, they are the ones left holding the bag!
