Go John, Go!

[Slippery_Pete]

I think we are all a bit gobsmacked with the way Alan Joyce is destroying what was once the greatest airline in the world.

In fact, it's quite easy to become so shocked by his actions you could be forgiven for missing what's going on with his counterpart, Borghetti.

I work for neither of these airlines, but holy sh*t, is Borghetti kicking some goals or what?

Things which Borghetti is doing (which Joyce is not):

1. Engaging his workforce
2. Giving the company direction for the future - something to strive for and work towards
3. Maximising PR exposure to the public with the recent revamp (uniform's, name, paintjobs, full service airline etc.) without going overboard or splurging too much coin
4. Keeping the fleet age reasonably young and putting on new aircraft
5. Not dividing his company into two airlines to drive down wages
6. Not destroying the very foundation on which the airline is built (in QFs case - maintenance standards and safety record)
7. Speaking proper English (sorry, couldn't help myself :})

The success of the two doesn't really affect me whatsoever, but as an Australian, it sure is interesting to see the completely opposite methodology.

One is raping, pillaging and destroying an icon for short term share-holder gain.

The other is building an airline, one day at a time.

Well done John. You're efforts and investment in the long term future have certainly been noticed.

[virginexcess]

Yes, this really is a stark contrast in strategies. On the surface it almost looks like QF and DJ are intentionally swapping roles in the austrlian industry. DJ striving to be the benchmark in product and service while QF seem to be intent on dismantling a brand built over almost a century.

Of note i asked JB directly at one of his meet the employee events last year, whether he believed that the race tonthe bottom philosophy, so widespread these days, is inevitable in the australian industry. His reply was that he didn't believe so.

Great to see he is actually 'walking the talk'. Pretty rare these days with aviation management.

[PoppaJo]

This is what everyone said about God during his time, were people in denial about his incompetence or something? I never came across negative stuff about BG until his time has just about ended.

Lets give it a year or two before we get carried away.

[ampclamp]

Borghetti had to find new direction for Virgin.They had an 'in between' brand forced on it by the qf and jq.
He is giving it his best shot and good on him for trying something new with a clarity of vision.

Leadership is being shown.

His plans will not please everyone and he will tread on plenty of toes.CEOs have to make tough decisions.

I wish him and the Virgin boys and girls every success.

[Utradar]

"One is running an airline making money and the other is JB."

Doesn't sound like it to me. AJ has said they're losing money, mainly international which must restructure to stop loss.

[ALAEA Fed Sec]

One could walk out to his workforce tomorrow and declare that they are having some financial difficulties and the staff would defer their next wage increase in the blink of an eyelid. The other is called Alan.

[breakfastburrito]

AJ has said they're losing money
AJ has said, but has he proved. Qantas International is the Qantas Group toxic waste ground. Its where all the bad sh!t is buried. It ends up with the groups costs, but not the revenue. If you have been following Sunfish's posts, you will know that through all sort of accounting gimmicks costs & revenue can be shifted around to create any outcome management like.

Just because "AJ says", doesn't mean anything. Without accounts available to independent aviation forensic accountants or court scrutiny, it could be complete fiction, and nobody would know. AJ has an agenda, what he says is not to be trusted.

Qantas paid Jetconnects' bills, hearing told (http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting-points/442509-qantas-paid-jetconnects-bills-hearing-told.html) should get you started.

[Capt Claret]

I recall a TAA insider explaining to me years ago how the F27s were pensioner off. By decree all work not associated with an airframe, cleaning, general tyre repairs, battery reconditioning, etc. etc. was in accounting terms, allocated against the F27 fleet.

12 months later an plausible argument showed that the F27s were too expensive, and TAA had to replace them with Jetstreams.

Of course there was no similar financial argument showing that a Jetstream plus a follow-that-plane baggage plane, was dearer. :rolleyes:

[ampclamp]

Australians are heading off OS in droves.The strong AUD is fantastic for outbound tourists. Try getting a seat on a QF international flight! Loads are excellent from what I see.
Presumably people flying out of Oz with QF are not swimming home or coming back with another carrier because getting back here is heavily booked also.
With such demand QF have some pricing power.If they cannot make money with full aircraft and a strong currency they are in the wrong game.

AJ has no cred with me after the phony figures on the engineer's and pilot's EBAs he has put out there.I now trust his statements as far as I could throw a 747.

[1a sound asleep]

I would be happy to work for DJ and take a pay cut through lean times simply because I know that I am appreciated as part of an airline that I am proud and happy to work for

[Shark Slayer]

Its simple really - Look after your work force, they will look after your customers, who will keep coming back and buying your product, so that makes you profitable which looks after your share holders.

Well it seems to be working at Air NZ!

Might affect executive bonuses though - that might be a problem!

[rodchucker]

Shark Slayer,
Don't bet on it that Exec bonuses will be affected, they have a whole team of consultants who have a vested interest in keeping this mob in place as long as possible and what chance do you think you have with this Chairman...I suggest absolutely NONE.

What you need is an insider to reveal how any public declaration of Exec bonuses is circumvented or you will NEVER know.

Still don't understand why AIPA are not making a fuss about the last time they gave up any demands under threat of redundancy and then GD walked out with the savings target. The PUBLIC do understand greed in such simple terms.

[fishers.ghost]

Virgin Australia has hired another former Qantas executive to head up a new information services division, as chief executive John Borghetti pushes ahead with his "Game Change" program to snare more business travellers.
Former Qantas chief information officer Segar Reddy will run the new division, formed by the merger of Virgin's business systems design and development division and the information technology division.
"These changes are necessary for us to effectively provide IT services to support the evolving Virgin Australia business model," Virgin chief financial officer Sankar Narayan said.
Mr Reddy takes over from Virgin's former chief information officer David Harvey, who is leaving the airline.
Mr Narayan is also setting up a separate team within Virgin to guide the planning and implementation of the systems required to support Mr Borghetti's Game Change program.
While Mr Reddy's appointment is not related to problems last year with Virgin's Navitaire reservations system, his hiring will further bolster the airline's credentials in the IT space.

Mr Borghetti, himself a former long-serving Qantas executive, has hired a string of former Qantas employees to help implement his plan to move Virgin more up-market in a bid to double its share of high-yielding business travellers.
His key poachings so far have included Jane McKeon, Will Owens and Hope Antzoulatos.
Ms McKeon, who was general manager of government and international relations at Qantas for more than 10 years, now runs Virgin's airline's government relations team. Mr Owens, Qantas's former head of pricing, has taken over as Virgin head of yield management. Ms Antzoulatos is Virgin's head of network for domestic and international operations, and 40-year Qantas veteran Roger Lindeman has also moved to Virgin as general manager service experience.
Virgin last week started flying A330 jets between Sydney and Perth featuring its new domestic business class.

[peuce]

Two observations:


The Difference between the Airlines


VA is out there trying to run an expanding business.
QF is out there trying to run a hidden agenda



The Difference between QF Staff and Management


QF Staff have put the details of their pay and conditions in the public arena
QF Management have not


Why is this last point not being "utilised"?

[ejectx3]

QF staff haven't put their pay details out there. QF management have put grossly inflated pay details of us staff out to lapdogs like Joe Hildebrand from Daily Tele. :ugh:

[Mr. Hat]

Creative accounting I suspect.

AJ seems to be a trustworthy guy. He wouldn't lie would he?

[Feather #3]

Capt Claret, you just described the demise of the QF's DC-4's.:{

G'day ;)

[Mr. Hat]

[YOUTUBE]YouTube - ‪Virgin heads explain restructure‬‏

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L0_Q9C035s

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CnMMLGNmaQ

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZaNp-OJdmU

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocpwo7hUxXo

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSm-Y0hPq6Y&playnext=1&list=PL38B3C2F13666BE16

[rodchucker]

Delightful to hear a plan, a strategy and a vision that does not involve denigrating almost the entire work force.

The Rat has already responded by throwing -400 capacity at WA, but the way things are going those aircraft will be needed on Int routes before too long. Thought they were already stretched but apparently not if you believe this spin.

Good luck to JB and all I say.

[SpannerTwister]

The other is building an airline, one day at a time.

If you say it with a thick enough accent, it almost sounds like,

"I'm destroying an airline, one delay at a time".

ST

[moa999]

Hulbosch vid is a load of spin.
His design basically copied Virgin America plane design and uniforms from Virgin Atlantic with a few small tweaks.

Also love the Qantas plane in the back at 0.38 secs (Hulbosch was the one who 'revised' the kangaroo)
Much like Virgin's new ads where in a few shots you can still see the outline of the Sing Air logo on the tail that they tried to paint over.

[Slippery_Pete]

Lester Burnham (real name LKH?),


One is running an airline making money and the other is JB.



What so many airline CEOs don't get is the fact that PROFIT DOES NOT EQUAL SUCCESS.

Yes, an airline is a business, and it exists to earn money, but a one year profit statement doesn't represent the overall success or long term sustainability of an airline.

Anyone can take an airline, and tighten the screws to deliver a better result for shareholders in the short term. In fact, you can do that with pretty much any business.

What is being missed (probably covered on day 2 of any basic management qualification) is that if you continue to tighten the screws to wring more and more profit from essentially the same model, eventually it will fail.

This is because you have to INVEST in your airline and your staff.

1. Staff who have for years come in on days off and accepted wage freezes will eventually get sick of not being valued and will stop giving. Employees eventually wake up to the "take, take, take" of management and decide that their family and way of life is not worth profit and stop giving. They will demand better EBAs, consider PIA, and do nothing beyond the absolute minimum to earn their pay cheque. It will, in the long run, end up costing the airline more.

2. If staff are not happy, training costs go up.
Consider an airline that has many Captains on ten year wages. In the short term, it might seem smart to screw down their conditions until they've had a gutful and leave, blame it all on other airlines "poaching" and upgrade a heap of first and second year pilots as Captains. Short term gain yes (through reduced wages), but not long term.
- Training costs go through the roof.
- There are much higher failure rates on checks as a result of inexperienced crew.
- Every pilot spends a month every year grounded due to failing a check, so you are only getting 11 months work out of a 12 month salary.
- You have to pay more pilots C&T increases to fix this problem.
And the best part of this entire equation is the fact that all of these one or two year Captains are only there to get a jet job, so you now have these training costs permanently with high staff turnover.

3. Airlines who don't invest in infrastructure will also suffer the same fate. Qantas are a good example here. They have generally turned much better profits than nearly all other airlines during Sep 11 and the GFC. They did that by not buying aircraft (and in particular the B777), which nearly every other successful airline in the world did. Qantas are now paying dearly, with expensive, inefficient and old/worn out aircraft costing them a fortune.

I'll say it again - short term profit does not indicate the overall or long term sustainability and health of an airline.

You have to spend money, to earn money.

[Mr. Hat]

Pete, you're too smart for the Airline industry.

Had a mate who's parents ran/run a business. Dad was the boss and ultra scrooge. He cut cut cut costs everywhere. They found the numbers looked great on paper for the first year or so then the business just started to fall behind. In comes mum who is not a scrooge (no surprises here) she invested carefully in a number of areas including staff and fit out. They never looked back.

Speaking of fit out check this out:

Inside Virgin Australia's new Gold Coast lounge - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller (http://www.ausbt.com.au/inside-virgin-australia-s-new-gold-coast-lounge)

Virgin promises better-than-Qantas punctuality - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller (http://www.ausbt.com.au/virgin-promises-better-than-qantas-punctuality)

Is it true: Qantas cheaper than Virgin Australia for flights to Perth? - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller (http://www.ausbt.com.au/is-it-true-qantas-cheaper-than-virgin-australia-for-flights-to-perth)