Have to agree Dingo. Southern is definitely gone. Bean counters have made the decision so there’s nothing to gain in moaning about it. Most in Southern actually expected the rationalisation at some stage but quite rightly believe they should be treated better by QANTAS in the execution of their plan. Hard for staff to accept that there is not an equivalent job for them somewhere in the QANTAS network, (actually for some no job of any sort) especially with all the expansion going on. Best for all concerned to give up what was Southern and concentrate on focusing their energies towards working together in a direction that will find the next best resolution for all involved.
Someone on this thread said that Sunstate would be the next company to be integrated into this equation but I disagree. QANTAS tends to like having a couple of similar operators to choose from. For example, it worked in QANTAS’ favour to have both National Jet and Southern operating Jets as regionals. If one company put out their hand for a bit more of anything they were promptly told that the other company would do the job if they were not happy with their present conditions. QANTAS loves to play company’s off against each other like this. For this reason I believe they will keep Eastern and Sunstate separate. If all the Dash 8 drivers belonged to the same company and the same union………………….. well let’s just say it would have the potential to cause headaches for QANTAS in the future.
I believe the QANTAS regional model is to have 2 companies operating jets;
i.e. Impulse and National Jet,
and 2 companies operating Turboprops;
i.e. Eastern and Sunstate.
This is also in line with QANTAS’ desire to have only one aircraft type per regional company hence saving on training costs. This model seems to work OK for Virgin too. You can save a real mint once you prevent pilots from changing aircraft types. Mind you this also denies them any sort of career progression but I don’t think that worries the bean counters too much. Hope they have budgeted for a high turnover of staff. Gone are the days of a company like Ansett where you could fly a multitude of aircraft types whilst still working for the one company.
I can also see how this sort of scenario could evolve from the introduction of Australian Airlines thus affecting the mainline guys by coming back to bite them but then again I’m probably just someone who likes conspirator theories.
I’d better go crack a beer, chill out, and watch the footy replay.