Qantas to form union with Qatar Airways

[600ft-lb]

Cookies must be enabled | Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/qantas-to-form-union-with-qatar-airways/story-fn7j19iv-1226417059948)

QATAR Airways is set to become the missing Qantas link to extra European destinations via the Middle East by forming a formal alliance with the flying kangaroo in the next year. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker confirmed in Perth today that the Doha-based airline will talk with Qantas senior executives next week on plans between the two airlines to form a strategic alliance.
He said the formal code sharing arrangement would mean ''joint flights'' with the QF Qantas flight code being carried by Qatar services with seamless transfers to Australian domestic services.


Finally ??

[hadagutfull]

So QF will fly to Qatar also, to feed their network?
Or will it be now 12 out of every 100 people coming into Aus that fly qantas?
Ahh, I forgot... It's all about feeding domestic and The orange thing .

[ohallen]

Yet another one that lacks detail and precision. Will believe it when it happens and ALL the ramifications are known.

Is it coincidence that this one hits the media the same day latest passenger figures are released showing DJ had more gains?

[Arnold E]

Qantas to form union with Qatar Airways

Union????............Union???...... My gawd, better take some action there hey MP?

Better ground the airline to sort these unions out.:cool:

[Al E. Vator]

So after all these years.......

Qantars it is!

[Shot Nancy]

Operative words being "talk" and "plans". Nothing concrete there folks.
Don't forget "Subject to appropriate approvals". :rolleyes:

[Taildragger67]

''joint flights'' with the QF Qantas flight code being carried by Qatar services with seamless transfers to Australian domestic services

ie. no QF-operated flights carrying a QR code, other than QF domestics.

ie. no place in it for QF international.

[YPJT]

I seem to recall a recent discussion about an alliance between QF and EK?:confused:

[HF3000]

I wouldn't get too excited - it's not finalised yet.

Joyce still has time to f--k it up.

[Wedcue]

Qantar: Spirit of Dohatralia.

Kicking goals Australia!

[maggot]

Qantar: Spirit of Dohatralians.


FIFY....


:bored::oh::8

[virginexcess]

Qatar:confused::confused::confused:

Well i guess it could have been worse. He could have chosen Gulf Air.

A tie up with the 3rd choice Gulf Carrier is not a step forward. Qantas, a once world benchmark for full service long haul airlines joining forces with Al Bakers basket case really is putting an exclamation mark behind the AJ led demise of Qantas.

The problem AJ has is that he seems to be devoid of ideas and is just playing catchup with JB, but JB is constantly 2 moves ahead.

[ohallen]

That is exactly the point because there is no evidence that AJ has ideas and merely spins concepts that have no substance and inevitably fall in a heap.

How long the Board and major shareholders will put up with this is the issue. I also wonder what they think of him committing to a role with IATA while the company burns to the ground, surely he should be told to just do his damn job or move on.

[ampclamp]

So, what are Qatar Airlines like?
I know jack. Bit bigger than Etihad , smaller than Emirates. How are they viewed in the industry for flt safety , training, engineering, in flt service etc?
Are they the booby prize? Last one left when the music stopped? Or are they a good solid partner ?

[Luke SkyToddler]

Aircraft - new. Engineering - all MEL's get dealt with immediately and tech logs are generally clean, not always sure about the quality of the workmanship though. Training standards - nonexistent, mainly because any training or management pilot who stands up to the boss over any minor thing is immediately sacked and they find a new one. There was 5 different "chief pilot training" appointments in the 3 years I was there. Standard of English is generally low among the trainers, parrot-fashion regurgitation of half-hour-long briefings is encouraged, lateral thinking and problem solving is not. Corruption is an issue as well, the training department is dominated by one particular nationality of pilots who treat it like their little social club, and if you have friends in the right places you can be very very sub standard indeed and sail through your sim checks.

Everyone is on max hours, constant night split duties and min rests, crew are basically a perpetually tired pack of zombies. Staff turnover is highest of all the Gulf airlines, partly because of resignation rate and partly because of the incredible raft of thousands of pages of rules, uniform regulations, notices to crew etc, all of which must be memorized and all of which generally result in termination for the smallest offense. Their CEO is an utter psychopath, AJ looks like Nelson Mandela by comparison.

Basically they're a vanity project by the sheikh - kind of like them "winning" :hmm: the football world cup, or buying Harrods - they must be losing billions of dollars per annum but the owners don't really care, they just like seeing the Qatari flag on those big shiny jets.

Their biggest problem is cultural, they think that they can treat safety critical staff like the million other slaves / Bangladeshi building site labourers they have working in their country, there's no difference in their eyes. I know EK and the other not-allowed-to-mention airline are far from perfect, but they're streets ahead of QR in that regard. Hence why virtually no Western professional pilots stay for more than a couple of years.

In my opinion they're an accident waiting to happen, and anyone who forms an "alliance" with them is asking for real trouble.

[ampclamp]

Thanks Luke. Interesting report. I have seen some anecdotal evidence of high turnover rate but not so much of why.
Cheers.

[training wheels]

Their CEO and new 787 at the Farnborough 2012 airshow ..

LKydeOcQZ9Q

[Metro man]

The airline has a "Termination Department" along with the usual commercial, operations, sales etc

People jump ship whilst on trips, they simply leave their uniform in their hotel room and disappear.

Cabin crew have a curfew and must be back in their accommodation by 10.00pm, the building has a camera monitoring this.

Also cabin crew are encouraged to spy on flight crew and report any transgressions. A pilot used a first class seat for his rest period instead of business class, he was made to pay the difference between the two airfares.

Flirting between pilots and air hostesses is grounds for dismissal.

I have worked with a few ex QATAR staff and they all say it is actually worse than the stories circulating.

[Worrals in the wilds]

Interesting posts, Luke and Metro Man.
Qatar does not sound like the sort of place that will tolerate legions of drunken Aussie tourists lurching around the main streets of Doha, which is a sad fact of life when your business involves transporting Australians anywhere.

Do they really want to align with an Australian carrier? :eek: If it does go ahead, the first batch of bogans who get locked up in Qatar for making a spectacle of themselves should generate some great publicity all 'round. :hmm:

[ohallen]

All these reports are consistent with a cultural fit to the existing Qf management style and explains why it would appear an attractive option. They surely wish they could operate this way.

[Taildragger67]

Worrals,

Not only do the bogans not leave the Bogan Terminal at DOH, they can't get a drink there, either. And if they do escape & make into town, they'll find that booze is not as readily available in Qatar as it is in Dubai.

They have easily-seen yellow bag tags, get off and on the a/c through the rear doors, are processed through and stored in a separate building from, and are generally kept well away from, the premium punters (and the locals).

[Worrals in the wilds]

Smart move. Kind of like a live animal charter...:}

[WorthWhat]

ASPIRE AVIATION - 18 July 2012

IS CONSOLIDATION THE ANSWER?

In light of the grim future painted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) at its annual summit held in Beijing recently, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, it seems, thinks the airline industry faces an overcrowding problem. He said at the summit: “The number of airlines in the industry is too many. It’s too fragmented.” And the solution that he suggested: Consolidation.

Joyce is re-championing an old strategy that more than 20 years ago was predicted to inevitably see the number of competitors reduced substantially to a few mega airlines. That Qantas, (is)struggling with a money-losing international operation.....

Suggests a return to a strategy that was a bitter pill for SIA to swallow when it bought stakes in Virgin Atlantic in 1999 and Air New Zealand in 2000......

Most mergers are share swaps that do not materially alter the entity of the individual partners, such as the Air France-KLM alliance. The partners may share secrets and recipes of their success, but there is no guarantee that within their individual cultural confines they will not continue to confront their own demons that the partnership would and wisely prefer that they be contained locally. So as there are tie-ups, there will be break-ups.

Whether consolidation is the answer to the woes faced by the industry today is an old question that needs no new answer. It would be more exciting that in hearing Joyce, one wonders who will be hopping into bed with the flying kangaroo next.

Aspire Aviation (http://www.aspireaviation.com)