Great Posts Rated D.
Agree with Keg also.
There is a massive global pilot shortage. It's all due to a mass of retirements.
Qantas and global airlines that have created a multitude of subsidiaries have created tranches of lower paid jobs and job insecurity.
Pilots are by nature conservative so scare tactics work on them brilliantly. Standard line of sign xxx at airline xxx or company xxx will take Your flying.
But here is the rub. You can get paid far more and have a far more stable home life by going into other careers now. Airline work has got harder, less flexible and more intense. Other jobs have gone the opposite way and younger people don't see flying as an attractive option.
The Networks, Jetconnects, QLinks, etc etc just don't provide the incentives to get people to spent $200,000 plus on their training. This was not the case when the baby boomers joined. Pilots then were well paid in comparison, rostering was decent, and it was a respected position. You could choose between Qantas,Ansett or Australian/TAA. But this massive surge of baby boomers will all hit retirement age very shortly.
As Keg alluded to Jetconnect/Qlink can't crew flights. The operation is in complete chaos. You can only treat people like s$&@ for so long. Loyalty is gone.
The Trojan horse is weakening.
But Threatening a pilot with fear has worked, so Qantas will wheel it out regardless as it's always worked in the past. SH EA due?
IMHO they risk so much if they pull that tactic. The SH pilots are already worked to the bone. CEO is paid $25 million plus, Andrew David 8.18 million. Turnaround transformation. Game changing. Exec pay up by a multiple of 25 times.
But please mr/mrs SH pilot. Work 92 hours a month over Christmas for us to fill in for cancelled flying whilst we simultaneously threaten you at EA time with Jetconnect.
It's like the boy who cried wolf. Globally companies have tried this over and over as pay and conditions have reduced.
But trust has reduced too, along with goodwill. Like fuel it can run out with dire consequences.
Eventually crews will have enough and not care about "helping out" whilst simultaneously being threatened and losing precious time from their loved ones.
To pull that with Christmas and holidays approaching reminds me of the top gun quote, "Gutsiest move I ever saw MAV".