cabin bunny
I used to fly for AN (now QF), and still have my best friends working for Ansett.... from what I have heard, their regional (Skywest) flight attendants have all been offered permanent full-time positions in Ansett, and they will be the last full-time positions available at Ansett for a long time. I believe they are trialling their new rostering system in MEL shortly and it requires about 200-300 casual f/a's in order for it to work !! They are not guarenteed any hours, and can be shifted from base to base at any time (but then again, so can we all !!).
At QF we also have casuals, both Long Haul and Short Haul....but not to the same degree. We only have about 30 casual in MEL, with no more to come at the moment. But the casuals I have flown with are getting heaps of work. Their only problem is that they have to reapply for full-time positions, and at this stage, go through the whole interview process again !!
As well as casuals, we have contract overseas based f/a's and they have now announced we will be getting some fixed-term contract Australian based f/a's on 6 month contracts later this year.
Unfortuantely casuals, contactors and fixed term f/a's are the way the industry is heading in Australia these days !!
The money for casuals is great ( providing they get plenty of hours)- you'll still earn a lot more than say Impulse or Virgin if you get the hours, but keep in mind there's no staff travel, no sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave etc, no seniority and no bidding for duties (you just get assigned work, with no say in what you do!!)
And Ansett's casuals are employed by Flight Force, not Ansett, so there's probably no hope of getting travel benefits etc as you are basically contractors from another company!
Hope this info helps !