How did the current situation with QF occur?
Lads and Ladettes
Please accept my ignorance, its been over 2 decades since I left Australia, but I try to keep up by regularly reading the various Australian newspapers, watching Australian news via the web, and of course, via Pprune.
How did the current situation with QF occur?
As someone who left Australia, and managed to make a go of it with a foreign carrier, it has been saddening to read these pages.
There was a thread which suggested that a LAME was required for every walk around, and many pilots who said that "I am not qualified to do a walk-around". The rest of the world manages it, and I assume you would too if you diverted to an airport without a resident LAME.
There have been many posts suggesting passengers prefer to hear an Australian accent, and like know that an Australian pilot is flying them. Um, if that was the case, flights by Emirates, Etihad, Thai, Cathay, Malaysian etc would not have any Australian passengers on them.
Outside Australia there is no Long Service Leave, and less annual leave, so the cost of employing Australians, in Australia, is comparatively higher than employing people overseas on that metric alone.
Within Australia, the weather is relatively benign, and if you doubt that, visit Europe and North America in winter. De-icing and CAT 3 all day is not cheap.
What changes to salary reductions and working practices changes have the Qantas unions negotiated over the last few years, to ensure they are the people the company wants to do their work? I know of airlines overseas where the employees have voluntarily accepted permanent reductions in salary and made employment concessions. Hence they are cheaper, and therefore more attractive to the customer, but also more attractive to their employer.
And finally, why are you playing the man, and not the ball? There seems to be so much vilification of the QF CEO, and the Spokeswoman. Why are you doing that, and not negotiating with the CEO?
You can say that you are the world's best and safest pilots till you go blue in the face, if the ticket price is higher you will lose out. The future is in your own hands.