It's fairly obvious now as to what the "Dixon Plan " was/is.
JetStar to grow to a 100 fleet plus airline.
Obviously at Qantas' expense.
All very well, but where do you think all those pilots needed to fly those aircraft are going to come from?
Forget 457 visas.
The overall crewing establishment of a combined QF/JQ ,with forecast growth, won't change, only the mix will.
It's obvious that for JetStar to grow Qantas must shrink and it's only logical that a large number of those "polluting Qantas pilots " will be working for the LCC offshoot? (Is that soon to be parent?)
Is this what was meant by soon to be ex-Chief Pilot Manning when he waxed lyrically about how they ? (management?) had given up trying to convince Qantas Captains of managements vision.
The future of the company lay in it's S/O's and F/O's.
Just look at how the payscales in JetStar have been pitched.
For a Qantas S/O or F/O to take an upgrade under a JetStar type contract will mostly mean the upgrade in rank without a corresponding upgrade in pay or conditions.
Faced with the alternative I'd say most will jump.
However Qantas Captains by and large will be looking at a sizable pay cut.
Leaves you to wonder what if anything they can do.
Leaving the present EBA open would be an obvious tactic to gain some form of negotiating leverage over the new management team and try and extract some sort of guarantees.
No wonder management never expected to "win over" those individuals.
This is going to make for some very interesting group dynamics.
One question that springs to mind is the concept of a "group opportunity list" once there becomes no differences in cost.
What sort of a seniority integration list will evolve?
Interesting times indeed.
Here's to the future, what ever it may bring.
Last edited by blow.n.gasket; 28th Jul 2008 at 03:51.