Dear Mr Strambi,
As a long serving Qantas employee, I am devastated by what is happening to this great airline. You have asked for ideas and suggestions to help turn Qantas around and save the airline. I must request the first thing the senior executive management of the airline do is reflect on their own decisions and leadership and how those decisions, leadership and strategic direction has led to the current situation.
The strategy under Mr Joyce has clearly failed. The Qantas mainline operation has suffered from a lack of focus since Mr Joyce became CEO. It is only when the reality of the dire situation facing Qantas became evident, that any effort was turned towards Qantas mainline. This lack of focus has enabled Virgin to not only catch up to Qantas, but surpass Qantas in customer experience, equipment and most importantly innovation. Qantas was once very good at innovation that enabled it to be ahead of the market and permit a premium to be charged. Under the current management, Qantas is now reactionary and falling increasingly behind. A simple example is trans-continental flights. Virgin is now far ahead in cabin amenities with Qantas more than 12mths behind in offering a similar consistent product.
Mr Joyce says Qantas is fighting with one hand tied behind its back and the playing field is uneven. Qantas frontline staff have been doing exactly the same and facing exactly the same situation because of management for years. Our product is inconsistent, aircraft dated and uneconomical. We are often short in catering and our frontline staff and cabin crew are forever forced to apologise to customers spending more time on "customer recovery" than just about anything else. I acknowledge there has been considerable recent effort to address these shortcomings but unfortunately it is too little too late and I feel employees have now completely lost trust with senior management.
Mr Strambi, you now have a choice. Mr Joyce needs to go and you need to show your hand. Do you support Mr Joyce and the five years of failed strategy, if so you should honour the failures of management and offer your resignation along with Mr Joyce. Alternatively, you can step up and publicly offer yourself as an alternative CEO and outline a vision to save Qantas.
It's crunch time Mr Strambi and time to stand up.
Regards,
A loyal Qantas employee