Originally Posted by
morno
Bravo, well said. It’s happened, Jetstar is here to stay.
I highly doubt Qantas would ever have grown to the extent that Jetstar has, so this in turn has created more pilot jobs in Australia than would have been created providing “a career” to existing Qantas pilots. You are there to do your job. Your job is to be a pilot for Qantas. If you happen to get some advancement in the meantime, great. Otherwise Qantas is not there simply to tend to your careers.
Jetstar's presence is likely not the source of concern, it does play a role.
At the juncture, Qantas had a choice either re-equip as the fleet gifted by the Australian taxpayer aged, or 'greenfield' an entire airline and hope to drive unit cost lower without destroying revenue.
That Qantas chose the latter and in so doing squandered operating margin is disappointing. It remains impossible to measure, as any unknown-unknown is, however compared to peer airlines it has gone backwards as a group. Alleged lower unit cost aside, many Qantas pilots assumed that a career path existed, a career path that Qantas management didn't dare tell them had evaporated in a lost decade.
It is as plausible that as Jetstar's model is saturated, with a mid cost base, Qantas IR again play the same song and 'greenfield' other entities, with fleet and routes, to lower unit cost. As a more mature business those JQ pilots sitting in the right hand seat may have to wait for retirements rather than growth to further their career.
A tune Qantas pilots are familiar with.