So QF is dangling a carrot at one end of the donkey, and is cracking a whip at the other end.
What else did you guys expect, seriously!
If a company cant MAKE you do something, they will cajole and threaten.
Don't waste your energy getting upset about that.
However.......
It is good to see that QF pilots at all levels are getting fired up about AIPA. It might awake a sleeping giant. It is not so good to see that more than a few are fired up about Jetstar being 'the enemy.'
Leaving the politics and the history to one side, it is just plain stupid for QF pilots to attack JQ's expansion by trying to limit it.
Any time the 'big boys' tried to say -- that's our flying, those are our routes -- they failed and did long term damage to their cause. Ansett/Kendell/CRJ wasn't all that long ago, for instance.
The existence of JQ, and to a lesser extent, NJS as an operator of QLink jet services, is a very useful industrial bargaining tool for your company. If however you had close relations with all pilots that flew under the QF group colours, you remove the ability of your company to play one off against the other.
Time some of you that complain about 'blind company men' realised that your prejudices and fears about JQ and others make YOU blind company men. Attack or move to limit JQ, you attack pilots. You will only do damage to yourselves in the long run. Those companies are established, they will not be easily given up, and efforts should be made to steer them, not stop them.
ARG, good luck. I hope the fervour is matched by some clear thinking and good strategy.
Last edited by ITCZ; 23rd Sep 2005 at 13:42.