Qf LAME EBA Negotiations Begin
Am i correct in saying that not too many years ago a certain ceo tried to turn Aer Lingus into a 'RYANAIR'? Dont think the effeciencies did much there,in fact the public snubbed that airline very quickly & they were lucky to survive.
On another subject,considering that right now there are so many engineers that would like a redundancy is it prudent to oppose it or should we be trying to make it benefit us-just a thought,definitely not saying it is the right way to go and also with the state of the USA(this is something the company is now going to highlight),is widespread industrial action the right way to go,i know Steve will have this in mind but maybe worth a few comments.Cheers.
On another subject,considering that right now there are so many engineers that would like a redundancy is it prudent to oppose it or should we be trying to make it benefit us-just a thought,definitely not saying it is the right way to go and also with the state of the USA(this is something the company is now going to highlight),is widespread industrial action the right way to go,i know Steve will have this in mind but maybe worth a few comments.Cheers.
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aren't alot of the bag chuckers already on more money than most AME's and some low grade LAME's
The rumoured plan is to get rid of all QF employed bag chuckers except leading hands and replace them all with casuals from QFs new labour hire company. At a much lower hourly rate of course. I'm betting the number "457" appears somewhere...
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What I don't understand is why have a bag-chucker do the arrival, when a suitably qualified engineer will be doing the walk-around (etops & check 2 transits) as soon as it gets on bay?? Either this is a clear lack of insight into what we actually do, or just a step closer to a more sinister grand plan.
And some cleaners to (so I am told).
aren't alot of the bag chuckers already on more money than most AME's
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NM, Ng: right there you have the making of a great soundbite that resonates.
Newsreader: "Mr SP today said, "look, I know we have to compete in a global market but let's be serious here, currently the people who load and unload bagga and people who clean the aircraft are earning mroe than the guys who ensure they are mechanically reliable. What do you think that means?"
Now THAT is a strong, easily stated and easily repeatable message.
Come up with nmore like that (assuming it's true) and start getting that out there.
Newsreader: "Mr SP today said, "look, I know we have to compete in a global market but let's be serious here, currently the people who load and unload bagga and people who clean the aircraft are earning mroe than the guys who ensure they are mechanically reliable. What do you think that means?"
Now THAT is a strong, easily stated and easily repeatable message.
Come up with nmore like that (assuming it's true) and start getting that out there.
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Notice 043/2011 - ALAEA Members Forstaff Aviation - Reduction of Union Right of Entry
They were such good friends at the beginning now one of them is Forstaff management they seem to have turned on them.
They were such good friends at the beginning now one of them is Forstaff management they seem to have turned on them.
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What Planet are you Pri%ks on
So what if a bag chucker gets more than a AME or low paid LAME the reason is to get the LAME away from this job,same with the pre flt,why have a LAME standing around waiting for pushback......NOT SAYING AND READ THIS.....I dont agree with it...... just stating facts,and before "airsupport" gets on with his box of tissues saying I have given up....well maybe I have.The" LAME-on- Demand" is coming like the one man transit did, and the refueller doing the fuel has......and yes SP we applauded you in mel for keeping the two men 767 transit alive,but we all know what happenes in real life,thats why we are in the **** now....go on attack me now.....The Rim
The whole exercise, not just the ALAEA's battle, but also the AIPA's, has nothing to do with anything except breaking the unions base and leverage. This battle has been prepared for since 2008, the purpose is to drag it out as long as possible.
It's Oldmeadow inc IR strategy as per previous campaigns. They are not interested in negotiations they are interested in what its going to cost them. If it costs them too much they'll say 'yes heres a deal' like last time. If it costs them nothing they'll keep it going a bit longer.
There's no need to get emotional about anything. For Oldmeadow and Sue Bussell and Chris Nassenstein its just a job, part of the job is working out a deal which benefits your employer moreso then it benefits the workers you employ. They throw a few curly ones at you and hope you bite back. A few numbers of redundancies are put out there in the hope you're all so scared you'll demand you union cave in and accept anything.
It's just one big game to them, they don't care, an executive or consultants fee for the year is already locked away, to them its just another scalp to put in their LinkedIn profile. There is nothing in our current management's team that has anything to do with anything except reducing costs.
Reducing costs whilst CPI is going up means cutting. That's the metric our short term KPI driven management are focused on and that's what they aim for. You may aim to fix the defect and prevent a delay or you may aim to do the job safely, properly with years of knowledge and experience behind you but that doesn't translate into money for a KPI driven manager so its disregarded. 2 totally different goals which are incompatible with one another.. Maybe sometime in the past they were compatible, but it hasn't been compatible since the career stream for an engineer stopped being a segment management position and finished at a local DMM level.
Management don't care about previous culture, none of our current management have been brought up in Qantas so they don't care. Nassenstein is bringing his Air Transat and Air NZ experience and applying it to Qantas. Joyce is applying his Jetstar greenfields experiment which is gifted with free cash and no bills and applying it to the the bill payer.
And just remember the longer the 'dispute' lasts, the more the consultants get paid. Whose interest is it in to settle quickly ?
It's Oldmeadow inc IR strategy as per previous campaigns. They are not interested in negotiations they are interested in what its going to cost them. If it costs them too much they'll say 'yes heres a deal' like last time. If it costs them nothing they'll keep it going a bit longer.
There's no need to get emotional about anything. For Oldmeadow and Sue Bussell and Chris Nassenstein its just a job, part of the job is working out a deal which benefits your employer moreso then it benefits the workers you employ. They throw a few curly ones at you and hope you bite back. A few numbers of redundancies are put out there in the hope you're all so scared you'll demand you union cave in and accept anything.
It's just one big game to them, they don't care, an executive or consultants fee for the year is already locked away, to them its just another scalp to put in their LinkedIn profile. There is nothing in our current management's team that has anything to do with anything except reducing costs.
Reducing costs whilst CPI is going up means cutting. That's the metric our short term KPI driven management are focused on and that's what they aim for. You may aim to fix the defect and prevent a delay or you may aim to do the job safely, properly with years of knowledge and experience behind you but that doesn't translate into money for a KPI driven manager so its disregarded. 2 totally different goals which are incompatible with one another.. Maybe sometime in the past they were compatible, but it hasn't been compatible since the career stream for an engineer stopped being a segment management position and finished at a local DMM level.
Management don't care about previous culture, none of our current management have been brought up in Qantas so they don't care. Nassenstein is bringing his Air Transat and Air NZ experience and applying it to Qantas. Joyce is applying his Jetstar greenfields experiment which is gifted with free cash and no bills and applying it to the the bill payer.
And just remember the longer the 'dispute' lasts, the more the consultants get paid. Whose interest is it in to settle quickly ?
2008....think again
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FOA
First it was Geoff , now it is Alan.
Rumor has it that he has got his exit papers.
Seems like ex CBA CEO has his spot.
Prostate problems is the excuse.
Who will get Cliff's gig?
More mushrooms in the dark.
Planes will still break and we will still fix them.
Chill out and don't worry about what the threats are.
It is all buggery and bull****.
We will prevail again.
They haven't got a clue about the future, and the shareholders are worried, especially with all the other global dramas happening at the moment.
Prediction 1
Jetstar is about to self implode and the public is well aware of the scam which is being perpetrated at the moment.
They are sick of buying a Qantas ticket and ending up on a second class product.
Keep strong and prepare for battle.
We will win, because we are right, and the punters deserve better than they are getting now.
T.F.
Rumor has it that he has got his exit papers.
Seems like ex CBA CEO has his spot.
Prostate problems is the excuse.
Who will get Cliff's gig?
More mushrooms in the dark.
Planes will still break and we will still fix them.
Chill out and don't worry about what the threats are.
It is all buggery and bull****.
We will prevail again.
They haven't got a clue about the future, and the shareholders are worried, especially with all the other global dramas happening at the moment.
Prediction 1
Jetstar is about to self implode and the public is well aware of the scam which is being perpetrated at the moment.
They are sick of buying a Qantas ticket and ending up on a second class product.
Keep strong and prepare for battle.
We will win, because we are right, and the punters deserve better than they are getting now.
T.F.
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same with the pre flt,why have a LAME standing around waiting for pushback......NOT SAYING AND READ THIS.....I dont agree with it......
I understand that the regulator, and other operators have deemed the need to have engineers carry out these functions no longer necessary. But I would like to think an airline that still trades on its reputation for safety would find a place for engineers to perform these tasks as opposed to "appropriately qualified staff".. I won't hold my breath though..The race to "world's minimum standard" sorry, "world's best practice" continues..
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SB's take on IR - Translation:Keeping the Workers Wages Low
Read the SB take on IR. I am much more informed now and agree that my wages are the reason QF is spiralling down!
Give me a break!
There are plenty of other businesses out there who, rather than focussing on fighting their employees to keep their wages down, actually focus on providing a product that constantly pulls in new customers and keeps current ones coming back - unlike QF.
Another excuse to take the focus off the crap decisions this Board and the previous one under GD have made. Just hurry up and give us the redundancy papers - we will leave and the wages argument will go away.
Give me a break! There are plenty of other businesses out there who, rather than focussing on fighting their employees to keep their wages down, actually focus on providing a product that constantly pulls in new customers and keeps current ones coming back - unlike QF.
Another excuse to take the focus off the crap decisions this Board and the previous one under GD have made. Just hurry up and give us the redundancy papers - we will leave and the wages argument will go away.
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The" LAME-on- Demand" is coming like the one man transit did, and the refueller doing the fuel has......
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ngineer
I have been around a long time and seen a lot of changes ....most not for the good of aircraft maintenance...but let me tell you I have seen when the dom went to the one man turnaround,the refuellers put the fuel on with no Lame present left the docket then the Lame used the full ext of his/her headset to see if doors were closed before pushback.....so yes it might be an old cliche and its been in use for a long time.....I dont know why I sometimes respond to the "prune" sometimes it makes me feel that I have passed something on that is useful but when I see the responces I thing why the fu%f did I bother.....The Rim
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just stating facts,and before "airsupport" gets on with his box of tissues saying I have given up
I sincerely hope that most LAMEs at Qantas have not thrown in the towel so easily, you NEED to fight this.
I dont know why I sometimes respond to the "prune" sometimes it makes me feel that I have passed something on that is useful but when I see the responces I thing why the fu%f did I bother.....The Rim
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Fair enough rim, but personally I can't sit back and watch things deteriorate at the rate that it is atm, nor will the majority of my colleagues.
And there aren't too many young LAME's left in my dept, you are not alone in that boat. Most have many years up their sleeve, and have seen alot of change over the years at the coalface. (More than most of the managers there anyway).
And there aren't too many young LAME's left in my dept, you are not alone in that boat. Most have many years up their sleeve, and have seen alot of change over the years at the coalface. (More than most of the managers there anyway).
Last edited by Ngineer; 11th Aug 2011 at 01:31.
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"thrown the towel in"
airsupport i have not chucked the towel in,while you were overseas working,and more than likely working under the conditions we are trying to stop I was here working against CASA and ALL the other operators in an industry review[including people from AN] before the new reg's were IN draft form,so its a bit of a smack in the face to say I have thrown the towel in...however I have seen first hand how these operators[not just qf]work,and now we have a situation where at the dom and int ramps we have QF on one bay and another operator next to them operating differently.....AND I SAY I DONT AGREE WITH IT BUT ITS THE WAY WE ARE HEADED....so what can we do....well how about putting some checks in there so it can operate safely...because IMHO I dont think we can stop it....The Rim
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Just received a chain letter from a fellow QF employee. Thought people might be interested. I've posted it on another thread also. We need to spread the word.
QANTAS has managed to destroy 43% of it's brand value in just 2 short years.
In the 7 July issue of BRW it was stated that QANTAS has managed to destroy 43% of it's brand value in just 2 short years.
90 years to build a brand, 2 years to destroy 43% of it.
I would love to take credit for the following reply to one of Ben Sandilands blogs. I don't know who wrote it, and I apologise if it has been posted on here before, but I hadn't seen it until today. It provides a very inciteful synopsis of how we have found ourselves in this position of fighting for our very existence, and pulls no punches on who is to blame.
Read on.
----------
Some of you may be aware of the media attention recently coming upon Qantas- especially from it's CEO, Alan Joyce.
Joyce came to the Qantas Group to run Jetstar, and had a small stint in Ansett, and a large stint in Ryanair previous to joining Qantas. Joyce has in past few months called Qantas pilots "Recalcitrant", "Kamikaze", and "Rogue", as well as accusing them of "Living on cloud cuckoo land". The reason- Qantas pilots are asking to ensure Qantas pilot jobs remain in Australia, as there is gathering evidence that Qantas wants to move more of it's operations offshore. Qantas Engineers are also asking for the same guarantees. So far, Qantas has refused to negotiate at all on these asks from the pilots and engineers.
Joyce was the golden haired boy of the previous CEO Geoff Dixon, the man who masterminded the attempted private Equity buyout of Qantas in 2007. Thankfully that did not get through. If it did, Qantas would have defaulted on the debt it was going to be loaded with, and would most certainly not exist any more. Dixon stood to make $60m out of the deal, and Joyce in excess of $20m.
In the Dixon/Joyce years, decision have been made that have severely damaged the Qantas brand, including forcing passengers onto Jetstar without choice, closing in-house maintenance of engines which has resulted in a 180% increase in engine failures in the past 5 years, and not buying the right aircraft to modernise Qantas and allow route expansion. To add, Qantas has subisided the Jetstar operation from the start including paying for maintenance, payment of landing fees, fuel and terminal charges, and seat subsidies.
As a result, Qantas share prices are below their 1995 issue price of $2.00.
Joyce was in Singapore recently for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference and blasted the pilots and engineers as being to blame for the tanking share price. He also stated that there would be no more investment in Qantas until it "started to return it's cost of capital". As one commentator put it, this is akin to "not spending any money on your car to make it run until it starts".
To put some of this into context and to show how badly Qantas management have stuffed up, here is some quotes from Qantas management and what has subsquently happened:
"Jetstar will not operate more than 15 aircraft" G.Dixon 2004. It now operates more than 70 aircraft.
"Jetstar will never operate internationally" G Dixon 2004. It has taken many Qantas routes from it's parent company to Hawaii , Japan , Bali and other ports.
"Emirates is not a threat as it is not a growth model" G Dixon 2001. Emirates now operates more than 60 services per week to Australia and flies to 26 destinations in Europe .
"The B777 is an old technology aircraft" G Dixon 2006. The B777 could fly 90% of the routes currently flown by the B747 with a 30% reduction in fuel burn and is flown by every major airline in the world.
"There is no money in freight" G Dixon 2004. Qantas now operates a full freighter B767 aircraft flown by contract pilots as well as full time contracts with Atlas Air Cargo.
All the while Qantas pilots get assigned Long Service Leave because of a surplus in pilot numbers due to the outsourcing of flying previously done by Qantas pilots to Jetstar, Atlas cargo, Jetconnect across the Tasman, and Jetstar Asia.
You will find below a succienct, precise, summary of where and why Qantas finds itself- losing money and losing market share. This was written as a response to a blog by Ben Sandilands on crikey.com <http://crikey.com> .
------------------------------------------
Qantas pilots and engineers ask for your support and patience this year while we try to end the rot, keep Australian jobs in Australia and attempt to save a national icon from corporate greed.
--------------------------------------------
Of all the elements a board and a CEO must manage and protect, surely building and protecting the brand of a company must be their number one priority.
Clifford came out swinging on the weekend saying the focus of the board and CEO must be, and is, on the share price and return of capital. But it is the brand that drives the share price, not the other way around. Everything else flows from that.
If you followed that logic Jetstar never would have been started and Virgin wouldn’t be spending a fortune relaunching and building the brand. If Virgin can do that, why cant Qantas?
Let’s look at the facts. This is marketing and business studies 101.
Qantas from the inception of the very first brand surveys decades ago consistently and without exception, year in year out, always lead the pack as the NUMBER ONE BRAND in Australia . This was not just in terms of brand recognition but also in relation to the more significant drivers of financial success in the market place; trust and emotional attachment for the brand.
The Qantas brand was pure 100%, 24 carat, rolled gold.
This was Qantas’s number one asset. It still should be. Bigger than all the aircraft and other tangibles combined. Every airline has plant and equipment, but only Qantas had that number one position, the ultimate in brand power.
After sitting at number one for decades Qantas is no longer even in the top ten. But worse than that here’s a report from Readers Digest annual Most Trusted Brands survey way back in 2008.
” … the iconic flying kangaroo, Qantas, dropped 47 spots in consumer confidence.”
You read right. In 2008 Qantas dropped 47 spots.
That massive drop in the brand if quantified in dollar terms is so much more than the net worth Jetstar has added to the Qantas group.
So what happened. How did the best, most loved, number one brand in Australia for decades crash and burn. So quickly. So badly.
There are two main reasons for this. And they have names, the first being Dixon , the other Joyce. The destruction of the brand has zippo to do with the current biffo with the unions.
1/ When Dixon took over as CEO the Qantas brand was still riding high and proud at number one. It was untouchable. He was seen by many as marketing and PR genius. Yet the destruction of the Qantas brand can be traced back through these exact same brand surveys to having commenced during his tenure. It is no coincidence that this rapid decline coincides EXACTLY with the rise of Jetstar under the Qantas umbrella.
BA when they held seats on the board warned Dixon an in house low cost carrier would cannibalize the parent brand. Dixon thought he knew better.
We all know the story. As soon as Jetstar was launched Qantas ****ed off many local communities with the haste it pulled out of so many key domestic and international markets and forced people who were used to, and wanted full service, onto Jetstar with an appalling lack of service.
Everyone knows Jetstar is Qantas. Each and every time people feel ripped off or mishandled by Jetstar, which is often, the knife is dug deeper and twisted further into what is left of the Qantas brand.
Just ask any of the tens of thousands of passengers forced to fly Jetstar (because Qantas has pulled out) to destinations like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast , Tasmania , Hamilton Island , Bali or Japan . They don’t blame Jetstar, they blame Qantas.
2/ From the day Jetstar was conceived fleet renewal and investment in the mainline product ceased almost completely. While Jetstar got an entirely new fleet of fuel efficient A320/A330 aircraft “full fare” passengers on “full service” Qantas were stuck with clapped out, gas gusling, dirty and unreliable aircraft. The new Dallas debacle is a perfect example.
As you point out Ben, when Qantas could have, should have been renewing its mainline fleet, such as buying B777 as did all of its main competitors, there was no money or motivation as all the focus and cash were thrown at Jetstar.
Clifford and Joyce had already earmarked the first B787s for Jetstar, meaning Qantas mainline will not be seeing any new aircraft for many years. Just who has been subsidising who? This only serves to compound the destruction of the brand.
Joyce is now the biggest most vocal detractor of Qantas brand, constantly screaming hysterically that long haul is in serious trouble.
What would the books look like if Qantas had, as it should have as the premium brand, a fleet of all new and super efficient aircraft while the budget arm Jetstar was stuck with the old aircraft from the current mainline fleet.
A/ Jetstar would no longer be making money
B/ Qantas mainline would be making money
C/ Qantas would have a product people expect of a full service carrier and it would be growing its market share.
No one at Qantas management either remembers, nor understands, these important lessons from history.
The only player who appears to do so is John Borghetti. You can see he ‘gets it’ by his determination to invest substantially in a full service product, to grow markets such as this morning’s tie up with Singapore Airlines, the business and the Virgin brand.
He knows where Qantas is vulnerable and it is insightful too that he is branding Virgin Australia as the Australian airline and he is vocal about returning jobs to Australia service his aircraft here.
QANTAS has managed to destroy 43% of it's brand value in just 2 short years.
In the 7 July issue of BRW it was stated that QANTAS has managed to destroy 43% of it's brand value in just 2 short years.
90 years to build a brand, 2 years to destroy 43% of it.
I would love to take credit for the following reply to one of Ben Sandilands blogs. I don't know who wrote it, and I apologise if it has been posted on here before, but I hadn't seen it until today. It provides a very inciteful synopsis of how we have found ourselves in this position of fighting for our very existence, and pulls no punches on who is to blame.
Read on.
----------
Some of you may be aware of the media attention recently coming upon Qantas- especially from it's CEO, Alan Joyce.
Joyce came to the Qantas Group to run Jetstar, and had a small stint in Ansett, and a large stint in Ryanair previous to joining Qantas. Joyce has in past few months called Qantas pilots "Recalcitrant", "Kamikaze", and "Rogue", as well as accusing them of "Living on cloud cuckoo land". The reason- Qantas pilots are asking to ensure Qantas pilot jobs remain in Australia, as there is gathering evidence that Qantas wants to move more of it's operations offshore. Qantas Engineers are also asking for the same guarantees. So far, Qantas has refused to negotiate at all on these asks from the pilots and engineers.
Joyce was the golden haired boy of the previous CEO Geoff Dixon, the man who masterminded the attempted private Equity buyout of Qantas in 2007. Thankfully that did not get through. If it did, Qantas would have defaulted on the debt it was going to be loaded with, and would most certainly not exist any more. Dixon stood to make $60m out of the deal, and Joyce in excess of $20m.
In the Dixon/Joyce years, decision have been made that have severely damaged the Qantas brand, including forcing passengers onto Jetstar without choice, closing in-house maintenance of engines which has resulted in a 180% increase in engine failures in the past 5 years, and not buying the right aircraft to modernise Qantas and allow route expansion. To add, Qantas has subisided the Jetstar operation from the start including paying for maintenance, payment of landing fees, fuel and terminal charges, and seat subsidies.
As a result, Qantas share prices are below their 1995 issue price of $2.00.
Joyce was in Singapore recently for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference and blasted the pilots and engineers as being to blame for the tanking share price. He also stated that there would be no more investment in Qantas until it "started to return it's cost of capital". As one commentator put it, this is akin to "not spending any money on your car to make it run until it starts".
To put some of this into context and to show how badly Qantas management have stuffed up, here is some quotes from Qantas management and what has subsquently happened:
"Jetstar will not operate more than 15 aircraft" G.Dixon 2004. It now operates more than 70 aircraft.
"Jetstar will never operate internationally" G Dixon 2004. It has taken many Qantas routes from it's parent company to Hawaii , Japan , Bali and other ports.
"Emirates is not a threat as it is not a growth model" G Dixon 2001. Emirates now operates more than 60 services per week to Australia and flies to 26 destinations in Europe .
"The B777 is an old technology aircraft" G Dixon 2006. The B777 could fly 90% of the routes currently flown by the B747 with a 30% reduction in fuel burn and is flown by every major airline in the world.
"There is no money in freight" G Dixon 2004. Qantas now operates a full freighter B767 aircraft flown by contract pilots as well as full time contracts with Atlas Air Cargo.
All the while Qantas pilots get assigned Long Service Leave because of a surplus in pilot numbers due to the outsourcing of flying previously done by Qantas pilots to Jetstar, Atlas cargo, Jetconnect across the Tasman, and Jetstar Asia.
You will find below a succienct, precise, summary of where and why Qantas finds itself- losing money and losing market share. This was written as a response to a blog by Ben Sandilands on crikey.com <http://crikey.com> .
------------------------------------------
Qantas pilots and engineers ask for your support and patience this year while we try to end the rot, keep Australian jobs in Australia and attempt to save a national icon from corporate greed.
--------------------------------------------
Of all the elements a board and a CEO must manage and protect, surely building and protecting the brand of a company must be their number one priority.
Clifford came out swinging on the weekend saying the focus of the board and CEO must be, and is, on the share price and return of capital. But it is the brand that drives the share price, not the other way around. Everything else flows from that.
If you followed that logic Jetstar never would have been started and Virgin wouldn’t be spending a fortune relaunching and building the brand. If Virgin can do that, why cant Qantas?
Let’s look at the facts. This is marketing and business studies 101.
Qantas from the inception of the very first brand surveys decades ago consistently and without exception, year in year out, always lead the pack as the NUMBER ONE BRAND in Australia . This was not just in terms of brand recognition but also in relation to the more significant drivers of financial success in the market place; trust and emotional attachment for the brand.
The Qantas brand was pure 100%, 24 carat, rolled gold.
This was Qantas’s number one asset. It still should be. Bigger than all the aircraft and other tangibles combined. Every airline has plant and equipment, but only Qantas had that number one position, the ultimate in brand power.
After sitting at number one for decades Qantas is no longer even in the top ten. But worse than that here’s a report from Readers Digest annual Most Trusted Brands survey way back in 2008.
” … the iconic flying kangaroo, Qantas, dropped 47 spots in consumer confidence.”
You read right. In 2008 Qantas dropped 47 spots.
That massive drop in the brand if quantified in dollar terms is so much more than the net worth Jetstar has added to the Qantas group.
So what happened. How did the best, most loved, number one brand in Australia for decades crash and burn. So quickly. So badly.
There are two main reasons for this. And they have names, the first being Dixon , the other Joyce. The destruction of the brand has zippo to do with the current biffo with the unions.
1/ When Dixon took over as CEO the Qantas brand was still riding high and proud at number one. It was untouchable. He was seen by many as marketing and PR genius. Yet the destruction of the Qantas brand can be traced back through these exact same brand surveys to having commenced during his tenure. It is no coincidence that this rapid decline coincides EXACTLY with the rise of Jetstar under the Qantas umbrella.
BA when they held seats on the board warned Dixon an in house low cost carrier would cannibalize the parent brand. Dixon thought he knew better.
We all know the story. As soon as Jetstar was launched Qantas ****ed off many local communities with the haste it pulled out of so many key domestic and international markets and forced people who were used to, and wanted full service, onto Jetstar with an appalling lack of service.
Everyone knows Jetstar is Qantas. Each and every time people feel ripped off or mishandled by Jetstar, which is often, the knife is dug deeper and twisted further into what is left of the Qantas brand.
Just ask any of the tens of thousands of passengers forced to fly Jetstar (because Qantas has pulled out) to destinations like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast , Tasmania , Hamilton Island , Bali or Japan . They don’t blame Jetstar, they blame Qantas.
2/ From the day Jetstar was conceived fleet renewal and investment in the mainline product ceased almost completely. While Jetstar got an entirely new fleet of fuel efficient A320/A330 aircraft “full fare” passengers on “full service” Qantas were stuck with clapped out, gas gusling, dirty and unreliable aircraft. The new Dallas debacle is a perfect example.
As you point out Ben, when Qantas could have, should have been renewing its mainline fleet, such as buying B777 as did all of its main competitors, there was no money or motivation as all the focus and cash were thrown at Jetstar.
Clifford and Joyce had already earmarked the first B787s for Jetstar, meaning Qantas mainline will not be seeing any new aircraft for many years. Just who has been subsidising who? This only serves to compound the destruction of the brand.
Joyce is now the biggest most vocal detractor of Qantas brand, constantly screaming hysterically that long haul is in serious trouble.
What would the books look like if Qantas had, as it should have as the premium brand, a fleet of all new and super efficient aircraft while the budget arm Jetstar was stuck with the old aircraft from the current mainline fleet.
A/ Jetstar would no longer be making money
B/ Qantas mainline would be making money
C/ Qantas would have a product people expect of a full service carrier and it would be growing its market share.
No one at Qantas management either remembers, nor understands, these important lessons from history.
The only player who appears to do so is John Borghetti. You can see he ‘gets it’ by his determination to invest substantially in a full service product, to grow markets such as this morning’s tie up with Singapore Airlines, the business and the Virgin brand.
He knows where Qantas is vulnerable and it is insightful too that he is branding Virgin Australia as the Australian airline and he is vocal about returning jobs to Australia service his aircraft here.