Originally posted by
ottergirl:
Regardless, another fleet of people on not only less pay but working to a charter type agreement can not be a desirable way forward from IR perspective.
The issue is costs, not IR. Let's remind ourselves what Willie Walsh said to staff: "On routes to Australia, for example, our cabin crew costs before the complement changes were 31 per cent higher than those of Qantas. Asia will be a massive growth market in the future. We are shutting ourselves out of Asia because our costs are too high."
BA loses money on the Oz flights. If SYD is terminated, then BKK and SIN are under threat as BA needs the fifth freedom traffic. Any pull out would be a serious blow to BA's reputation as a global carrier, especially in view of previous axing of several Asia/Pacific routes, namely:
CGK, SEL, TPE, MNL, KUL, OSA, NGO, FUK, PER, BNE, MEL, ADL, AKL.
And let's not forget that NRT was cut from two to one daily.
The bottom line is that cabin crew costs must come down permanently, which is what new fleet is about. Unite has had 13 months to come up with an alternative to BA's cost cutting plans, but has woefully failed to do so.