Plane Talking
The Hungry Beast’s Jitcunnickt satirical summary of the not Qantas, fully independent, falsely labelled ‘Spirit of Australia‘ Jetconnect full service trans Tasman operation has hit some raw nerves.
This is a response from the other side of the Tasman, and it lays a few punches that are factually correct to the best of my knowledge.
I am getting totally p*ssed off with all of the bull**** and lies that are being spread by the Unions and, in particular do find the piss take that was on ABC particularly offensive. It is typical of the bullying tactics and attitudes that the Australian Unions and some Australians unfortunately have towards their Kiwi brothers, an attitude that I find very disappointing because as you know I have worked for Australian Companies most of my working life and have very, very close friends who are Australian.(ie such as you) The truth be known I would have probably chosen to live and work there after PNG had in not been for Cathy’s desire to stay in NZ. As far as Jet Connect is concerned here are a few facts which the Union is not publicising. When the Company started in September 2002, as you know it was just a domestic operation in NZ operating under the Qantas brand. The Pilots at that time approached the Australian Qantas Pilots Union and asked them to represent us because we felt that the NZALPA was basically just for the Air NZ Pilots and would not represent us properly. The reply from the Australian Union was basically they were not interested and for us to take a flying jump, end of story. Well we beavered away and gradually got enough Pilots in the Company into the Union, however unfortunately at that time the Management of the Company was pretty atrocious and things were not going too well, with Pilots leaving and morale in general down in the dumps. At that stage Qantas Australia sent 2 high powered guys over from Australia, they sacked the NZ CEO and the Flight Ops Manager and replaced them with these 2 guys. I am convinced that the brief given to these 2 was to take a close look at the operation and see whether it was worth saving or just shutting it down. Well the rest is history, they were only here for just over 2 years, the decision was made to continue on, new 737-800 NG’s were assigned for Jet Connect and when Jet Star started the domestic operation in NZ our role changed to the Tasman operation.
I hasten to add that at the time John Borghetti was still very much involved in Qantas and he in fact was in charge of the Jet Connect side of things so he saw the value of the operation, which of course he is continuing with the NZ Pacific blue operation in Virgin which is operated by NZ crews and on a worse contract than what we are on, and who are now flying most of the duties from Australian ports. (I do not see this being publicised or bitched and moaned about by the unions) With the arrival of these 2 guys we managed to negotiate a reasonable contract with the Company and I can tell you even though we are being paid less than the Australian Pilots we are on a par with the likes of Air NZ an in fact our Company is seen by young Kiwis as the Company to be employed by and a job as a Pilot with us is well sort after, so we are pretty well looked after. After a couple of years the Australian Management team went back to be replaced by a NZ Flight Ops Manager and another Australian as CEO. Since then we have not looked back, the new aircraft make up 95% of the fleet, morale is very high and you have a bunch of Kiwi’s working their arses off ensuring the Qantas brand is name is maintained to a high standard and that if possible a preferred choice when it comes to Tasman travel. The comment about the Pilots not being Qantas Pilots really does piss me off big time. You have not got a bunch of amatures flying the aircraft but a group of highly experienced Professional Pilots. We are operating the aircraft under the Qantas standard operation proceedures and our whole operation is run as Qantas operate.
Our checks in the Sim are exactly the same as any Pilot in the Qantas Group has. I for one have over 19000 hours flying experience and there are a number of our Pilots who have even more flight time than that and there would not be too many Pilots in the Qantas International Operation with that amount of flight experience. As far as the argument that we are taking Australian jobs is concerned this has got to be the biggest load of bull**** that has ever been spread.
There has not been one redundancy within the group since we arrived and it can be safely said that Qantas would most probably not have had a presence on the Tasman had in not been for us and out lower operating costs so we have not taken any jobs whatsoever. The likes of Emirates, Lan Chile, China Air etc have made the Tasman extremely competitive so it would seem to me that the Company had to get some reduction in costs in order to be able to compete. Once again another falsehood by the ABC snippet that the Company does not pass on the savings made by lower operating costs, because our fares are similar, if not better than others. We have a good load factor for the Tasman operation and all in all I know that the Group Management are very pleased with the way things are going.
Enough of the rant but there is a lot of crap being spread out there and I trust that this will in a way counter some of the half truths and lies that have been uttered. You have a group of hard working, good Kiwis operating the Qantas brand on the Tasman and they are certainly not letting the side down at all which is a lot more than can be said for some people on the other side of the ditch.
Whoever wrote this is an idiot!.. 19000 hours and prostituting yourself for your own self gratification!!... get a life!
You have taken Qantas Jobs! and you are NOT a Qantas pilot!
If you want to be a Qantas pilot apply!..., please don't self proclaim yourself as the Qantas prophecy over the Tasman!, you are merely an industrial tool!!
And if i didn't say it already... an idiot!!!!