Australian Airlines Changes

[B A Lert]

I am hearing around the traps that Australian is pulling the plug on Sabah sometime in May, and that they will be operating some services to Saigon and Phuket from Sydney in May and June. Is anyone able to confirm or is the info just idle speculation?

[Sonique]

Rumours are true.

All staff received sad memo stating they are withdrawing from Sabah ( BKI ) as of 29 April. :( The loadings are poor I am afraid and AO held out as long as they could but the route was unsustainable.

The Phuket charters last year operated on behalf of QF holidays were a success. However can not confirm any charters for this year as yet.

Look out for strikbreaking f/a's being trained at QCC for 3 week contracts to ensure flying is covered if strike happens.

[Three Bars]

Look out for strikbreaking f/a's being trained at QCC for 3 week contracts to ensure flying is covered if strike happens.

That should help "engage" some of our AO staff!!

[Sonique]

Three bars,
AO crew are already engaged. Just seeking slight pay increase due expansion plans for 2nd a/c type and proposed east/west flying.

As per wirraway's QF spirit thread.

While about three quarters of the staff employed by companies such as Hewlett Packard, Virgin Blue and Australian Airlines were engaged in their work, Qantas domestic or short-haul staff rated just 53 per cent, and international or long haul 22 per cent.

Have a nice day.:D

[Groaner]

Official:

Australian Airlines will cease services from Australia to SABAH (BKI).

The final flight AO7863 will operate between Sydney and Sabah (BKI) on Tuesday 03 May 2005 and return as AO7864 between Sabah and Sydney (BKI) on the evening of Tuesday 03 May 2005.

[The Enema Bandit]

If you happen to be on AO7863 for a holiday, how do you get home?

[king oath]

The answer is that no one will be on AO 7863 that day. Therefore it will be great for staff travel junkies.

But they better buy a row boat once they get there to come home in.

[Three Bars]

Sonique,

My point was an attempt at sarcasm directed toward our collective management ethic.

That is, training strikebreakers would go a long way toward "engaging" the AO staff - NOT!

[Sonique]

Threebars,

My apologies !

And yes...you are right. :D

[missleadfoot]

Yes it was very sad to hear that we will be losing Sabah. I think the main reason is the Malaysian government subsided the flights for a period of 2 years meaning AO wouldn't lose money on those flights for that period. The Malaysian government has now ceased the subsidies and we can no longer afford to contuinue permanent flights. AO however has not ruled out charters in peak times when the flights were full, and it was an extremely popular destination during those periods.
I also heard that we were due to operate another series of charters to Phuket over the easter period however I am not willing to even comment on that in light of the recent events.
Now that Sabah has gone and Sapporo will end in April as scheduled this frees up an aircraft for a while until Sapporo commences again at the end of the year so it will be interesting to see what we will be doing. My hunch is extra flights to Nagoya but Vietnam sounds good. I would love to be a fly on the wall in "Routes and Planning" just to hear what is being talked about. Some on my wish list are...

* Pnom Penh, Cambodia
* Ho Chi Mihn, Vietnam
* Cebu, Philippines
* Surabaya, Indonesia
* Guangzhou, China
* Micronesia
* Mauritious (they have just agreed to allow airlines from Australia and India to commence flights there).

It will be interesting to see but these are all basically untapped markets from Australia with the exception of Guangzhou and Mauritious. Continental Airlines fly to Guam from Cairns but they have the monopoly and China Airlines fly to Guangzhou from SYD and MEL. Philippine Airlines used to fly to Cebu from Sydney but I dont think they do any more. Many of these are vacation destinations so worthy of consideration. My thoughts only but I dont run the company, just work for them.