Skytrans decline continues unabated
It seems that cactus is the only person willing to lay it on the line with this company, but I will chime in also. The current CEO has certainly cut loose most of the deadwood in the past 12 months in a bid to stem the cash loss and remove the toxic culture, but more is needed. The place is a revolving door and all the good people have either left, trying to get out or been shafted.
The almost 30 NCN’s recently is testament to the underlying issues. It will take more than one decent CP to turn things around. If they lose him they are stuffed, he is the only worthwhile senior manager left. The general consensus is that they shouldn’t have HICAP status, they should be delegated down to GA level. I mean how can you be a HICAP operator with a Dash size fleet yet have no internal load control system? And CASA don’t blink an eye on that, even though they have been aware of this for 5 years.
They have already lost a number of mining contracts and DTMR comes up for review in the first half of 2014. Those who say that the contract losses are purely due to industry downturn are living in wonderland. Also they had 4 prop actuator maintenance overruns yet only reported one and did nothing about the rest. Why haven’t CASA or the ATSB picked up on this? Brindabella and Barrier have been pinged for issues no worse. Then you have them trying to step in and pick up some of Brindabella’s ports, yet they are just as unreliable with some ontime performance figures hovering around 35% on their western run according to BITRE. The planes are old, very old and they are struggling to pay lots of bills still. And to top things off, they are pursuing the fantasy of switching to an ATR fleet. They can't even get the unserviceable corrosion riddled lemon out of the hangar up north!
I have said it before and that is the frontline people in this company, the pilots (in general) are hard working decent folk copping the raw end of the pineapple for the incompetency and failures of the high ranking egotists. It's not right.Having an MD who ‘has a passion for aviation’ doesn’t make an airline profitable, safe, or even reputable, let alone loyal. Anybody can ponce around in a $400,000 car and a fancy set of Italian threads but that doesn’t equate to success. It’s an old smoke and mirrors act that is easily seen through.
Oh well, it looks like it will be yet another internal management course for what management are left, with the boss's wife, aka 'human resources expert'? Ha
Chocks Away,
Sadly that's been their HR's short sighted mantra since 2005, under the guise of "restructuring"! Such amateurs from the North 
If Bort is correct in telling us the HR and CP have changed... praise be to the Lord 
...best wishes.
Well said sir. Totally correct.Sadly even though they have a CEO with only 12 months aviation expereince and wants to fix the rot, it is all too late. The crusade against the good people in favour of shonky practises has been the catalyst behind their demise. Not so smart management.