Take into account those who were near to retirement at the time of the collapse anyway and the picture looks a little better
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Yeah, I think that there were about 70 guys who were in this position. It took me nearly a year to find a flying job, came close to giving up. I was accepted into NSW Ambulance as a paramedic (140 positions/5500 applicants-same SHL pyschometric as QF) then was offered a flying contract. I know of several young guys and girls who just never managed to resurect their careers-some very good operators, too. Many of these were under 40 when the music stopped.
What I learn't from the AN collapse is a lot of folks, perversely, relished in other's misfortune. Especially those who bombed out in Ansett selection
Yep. I met plenty of those. Also a few from 'that year' who still had issues. And remember a small group of rather immature staff from another airline coming into the Ansett terminal in Sydney to 'gloat'?
As for the collapse, it seemed to be coming from about the time that Paul Keating decided to merge TN and QF and then flog them off in a float. At that point AN started to lose a lot of big contracts- especially government contracts as QF was plumped up for the sale. The Defence Department contract was switched to QF even though it could not be serviced by their smaller domestic route network. Many of the larger companies switched their accounts to QF as their were obvious synergies.
There was nothing wrong with Ansett that $1,000,000,000 couldn't fix. Obviously there were too many types. QF and
VB are on the same treadmil now. AN would have thrived had the B737 and B747s been ditched and replaced with A320s and B767-300ERs. Consider AN with say, 45 A320s and 15 B767s at the time. Air New Zealand becoming a shareholder for all the wrong reasons was the final reason for the downfall. The fallout was that the NZ taxpayer had to bail out ANZ to the tune of $4,400 for every man/woman/child in their country. The Howard government also saw the chance for some 'reform' in the airline industry- get rid of a large group of highly paid (although very productive) pilots, cabin crew and ground staff and let the new comer, Virgin, set the new industrial model. Tiger and Jetstar became the by-product of this new order.
The later point is the lesson for those at QF now. The government has your careers well and truely in their sights. You people make way to much money for the liking of those who make the rules. The aviation reform agenda is continuing and I don't like where it will probably end up. Neither will you. However, QF, TN and AN staff were all lucky enough to see the Golden Years of Airlines in this country.