I think this has been pointed out quite clearly previously, but I’ll say it again. NZ can’t stand down its crew without pay like Australia can.
That makes the operating cost of an idle B787 vs a flying B787 completely different between the two airlines.
If you are paying your crew to sit at home anyway, your aircraft becomes a lot cheaper to fly. So of course you’ll win the tender!
That argument doesn’t put any food on the table of the stood-down Aussie crews, but it has helped save redundancies, and has so far saved QF from financial meltdown.
Maybe down the track we’ll work out whether stand-down provisions were to the greater detriment or benefit of Aussie pilots.
Having said that, it’s an appalling look that our Govt is comfortable with the fact that every international flight in and out of Australia is conducted by someone else.
No matter how you look at it, from a pilot perspective, just a couple of sims and a couple of flights every 3 months could keep your eye in the game and maybe just enough for skill retention and mental health relief.
Beyond that, 6-12 months out of the game is very difficult. I’ve never done it before, but friends with medical problems have. For 1500 pilots to be out of the game for 12-24 months or more is going to become a monumental problem. AIPA has been trying to communicate that to the Govt, but sadly it seems to be on deaf ears so far.
Last edited by Derfred; 3rd Oct 2020 at 17:01.