Worked for this outfit up until earlier this year. Everything mentioned above is true, it's an absolute abortion of an operation and it went steeply south after Qantas brought it in house.
Toxic incompetent management, bullying and harassment of staff, crappy maintenance, punitive training department, senior base pilots who are spineless and constantly go out of their way to screw over their colleagues the list goes on. The final straw for many was the most recent EBA "negotiation" which cemented in a huge loss of pay and conditions with the 220 introduction.
At least it looks like the Scottish turd in Adelaide who so happily screwed us on the EBA is being managed out of the operation. Not surprising as he hasn't got any qualifications and presents like a homeless vagrant.
The Sydney base alone has had close to 80% of its FOs resign in a 3 month period. Half went to Alliance which speaks volumes. Why would anyone stay if they didn't need to?
Getting a command there whilst not impossible has been made so difficult by the training department that most don't apply for one as they don't want to risk having a failure on their record. Big C little T.
In regards to the military influence, it has been a festering cancer that has slowly grown, with the old chief pilot being silently assassinated earlier this year. He is now at CASA, we didn't even get a goodbye email.
The military men have been busy installing reinforcements and are despised by the pilot group.
If 4 serious engine failures in 5 months doesn't catch the eye of Qantas or CASA then I don't know what will.
Below are some details on the most recent engine failures:
"This is the 4th engine failure/shutdown NJS has experienced in the last 5 months. From a pilots perspective, there are similarities so the NJS Continuing Airworthiness Maintenance Organisation has offered the information below.
Engineering Actions and Information
Today's event information known to date:
VH-NXQ #1 engine failure on climb. Inflight shutdown carried out and returned safely to Melbourne. The CVR and FDR data will be downloaded pending ATSB clearance. An aircraft/engine inspection will be carried out as soon as possible. The Group Engine Fleet Management team are following up with Rolls Royce.
Previous event information:
June 2022 VH-NXD suffered a Low Pressure Turbine failure.
August 2022 VH-YQT suffered a Low Pressure Turbine failure.
November 2022 VH-NXM suffered a High Pressure Compressor Blade failure.
All three events are still under OEM investigation, and we will provide you with further information as it becomes available."