Originally Posted by
BNEA320
so my 2 cents .....
QF & VA had way too many staff getting paid too much, BUT QF had larger share of corporate market, who pay top dollar.
You only had to look around at airports, with many well paid staff, standing around doing stuff all between flights.
New QF will have less staff probably being paid less or paid same but with more required (not saying necessarily pilots will work more hours).
New VA, if it gets up (can the administrators stuff it up ? Looks possible) will have a huge haircut in terms of staff & pay & conditions, otherwise a totally new airline will pick up either B737 or A320 aircraft leases for a song & pay nothing like QF/VA have in the past.
A new airline will only have to fly trunk routes more frequently than JQ & have cheaper fares than QF. Govts might have to subsidise non-trunk routes or JQ will fly them at higher fares, which will hurt tourism industry recovery in the regions.
Plenty of experienced ex VA & other airline staff, who would work for a lot less than they were getting, as have mortgages etc.
A new airline might start slowly, hiring only as needed, but in this new world, they could probably start with 6-8 aircraft or less, doing triangle only to offer a schedule better than JQ. Remember JQ will never fly frequently on the golden triangle or will be competing with QF.
What did Virgin Blue start with ? 2 x ex AN B734s wasn't it ? BNE/SYD only ?
Seem to be plenty of venture capitalists around with plenty of cash to fund it. Wouldn't be surprised if some of pay of any new airline was either shares or % of profit.
Its a bit of a myth that QF staff are overpaid. Twenty years ago , yes but not now .Pilots are still pretty well compensated but every other department has taken a haircut over the last few years. Remember the shut down? That pretty much broke the TWU and others at QF. Large parts of the workforce , flight attendants , baggage handlers, front counter staff etc. have been casualized. It will take a ruthless competitor to take them on.