I just cannot believe Qantas really want this.
I have worked off shore where they have this, never as good as having your own Professionals on the ramp.
When we were in the USA, first push back departure at JFK ITR and I wanted to do it but the handling company insisted they do it.
All done with just one Lady, driving the tractor with a head set on talking to the Pilots, myself and the local Mechanics followed in a van.
She got it to the disconnect point okay, jumped out of the tractor, disconnected the tow bar, then reversed the tractor, only trouble was the aircraft followed her, she had not even asked the Pilots to park the brakes.
Another day on arrival the guide lights were U/S and nobody knew what to do, I just marshalled our aircraft into the gate with hand signals, none of them had even been trained in marshalling.
Another time (different contract) we were overnight at CKS Taipei, I was in the jump seat for the flight back to Saigon, during the pushback there was a minor problem (I cannot remeber what it was now) and the Captain started telling the guy on the headset. I told him that he was wasting his time, as not only was he not an Engineer but he barely spoke English, sure enough when the pushback was finised he just said bye and left us to decide whether to go or get back in to a gate. He had done his job.
Do Qantas Pilots really want this sort of thing in Australia.
