Jetstar crews to be based in SE Asia
 

From a contact in Qantas HR.
As Jetstar's overseas routes develop, some staff will be required to base in SE Asia, to reduce costs. Don't know the timing on this.
Also, Qantas managers across the board are being asked to cut ground staff by 10%. Happening now.

'To reduce costs'

It's one thing to negotiate a contract based on living in Oz...QF are just taking the piss if they think people will take a basing in SEA on that package without the usual expat extras.

When this becomes widely known any current expats thinking about coming home from the sandpit cashed up and with a house, or three, paid off...and therefore able to afford the paycut for the lifestyle raise living at home, will just take a bex, lay down and think again. Those same types already employed and ensconsed at home will just ignore completely the bid paperwork looking for willing victims!

It will not sink in immediately but sooner or later the managment will realise they are on a flogging to no where..none will go, not enough will come...it'll be hillarious.

Many of the guys at EK, for instance, have already lived in Asia working for the likes of Dragonair....if they left Asia while being paid AUD$300,000.00+ (NET!!) does anyone really think they'll go back on 1/2 that?

Cabin Crew, NOT pilots!
Just like QF do.

Dont worry CC, you can quite easily count the number of busdrivers racing back from KA to work on JQ conditions, on the fingers visible from the top of a closed fist. :) Dont expect a flood of applications soon.

6 from KA already. I guess you have a 6 fingered fist.
I think you may be making a fist a bit too much :E

UR 2 there has not (yet) been one pilot leave KA for Jetstar.
As cc so rightly points out, with the comparitive conditions on offer, i hardly think there will be a flood of applications either.

Your head is in the sand if you dont think they will get many drivers or cc applying for these positions. I know of a number of both cc plus pilots that if they get in will take up a position asap. QF have done their homework, trust me.

my wife saw a baggage handler crying at the doctors he claimed to have been sacked that day

is it happening now?

I heard whispers the other day that JQI are considering Thai and Vietnamese nationals in the right-hand seat - yes, cockpit, not cabin...... For a tenth of the going price Australians would demand.....

Ok, it's a rumour, a story, a s#it-stir, I made it up, whatever, but tell me people, exactly what is to stop them doing this if they wanted to try it on? Do you really think the Aussie public is going to care? Afterall, they fly with a myriad of other SEA carriers that do this, why should JQI be patroned any differently by the Australian consumer because they have onboard, say, Thai F/O's with 200 hours total time?

Afterall, it's not like that pillar of everything Australian, namely QF, is employing SEA nationals as S/O's....... yet. If the SIN basing continues to be problematical as it's sounding that just may change...... And you know, I don't think Aussies will exactly chuck wobblies about foreign national S/O's on a QF flight-deck either. They might draw the line at "Captain Wong", however.....

I can tell you now!
As long as the ticket is cheap the pax wont give a flying farrrk who flies the plane!
Sorry to shatter any illusions you techies may have!

Quite true,
Take Dynasty, 7 hull losses in 9 years and who knows how many lives, and they still make money hand over fist.

Ahh well lets see - fer starters they dont 'ave Aussie citizenship - a government requirement.
And arrr, the Asian airlines are so despaerate fer pilots themselves that there employin Aussies on more than Aussies get paid back 'ome!
Yer way behind the times Ron & Edna.

Incorrect, no requirment to be an Australian citizen, QF has had non Australian crew (cabin) and maintenance for some time.

Cabin crew first, but soon some pilots will be required to base there, probably Singapore.

sailing,
AJ has made it very clear that workhardfornomoneystar will open a BKK tech crew base within 18 months. The assault on t&c's is far from over.:{
One of the F/O's who failed his 320 conv is now heading up the project......

What ever happened to national soveriegnty, ie., the need to have the right to live and work in australia through permanent residency or citizenship or Visa etc. If I want a new receptionist, I just cant bring one in from China or where ever.

Likewise, as an Aussie citizen, I cant just decide an FO slot at United or Southwest would be the go. Need the right to work in the US for that.

So just who runs our immigration policy, the Federal gov or Qantas?? I dont remember voting for Geoff Dixon at the local polling booth.

nomorecatering
I think you would find that if United or South West (if they flew to Aus) opened a tech crew base in say Sydney they would be quite within their right to employ Aussies if they wanted to. As long as the Aussies were appropriately licensed and vetted by the yanks, there is nothing stopping them employing Australian tech crew based in Australia barring industrial unrest from the American Unions of course. The point is you don’t need to have the right to work in the USA if you are based in Australia. The same goes for any tech crew that Qantas may decide to employ down the track and base them off shore to avoid the need for a work permit which they probably wouldn’t get anyway.
No immigration is involved here. An Australian firm is employing foreigners in a foreign country. Just because they are pilots and sometimes come to Australia is irrelevant. They don’t live here therefore don’t need sponsorship visas.

And before you go shooting me down, I am being the devils advocate here. I am not for one minute supporting such action by any Australia airline.

O/S base already there!!
 

You all seem to forget that the O/S base (SIN) is already there, albit on the baby bus for the moment.

The rot there has already started with very strong rumblings of the expensive Oz expat (on a local term contract; nothing provided!!!) to be progressively replaced by even cheaper SE Asian tech crew.

RFN

Cheaper tech crew from where ? Even the Philippines, long regarded as a source of cheap labour, has major pilot shortages as crews leave for Emirates.

Taiwan, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Korea, Japan etc all employ expat drivers. Most of these countries are advertising for more.

Whilst cabin crew can easily be replaced on half Aussie wages, it's not so easy with us ;)

QUOTE]6 from KA already. I guess you have a 6 fingered fist.[/QUOTE]

u2, utter rubbish. Dont know any KA driver who has left/would leave for the T&C's on offer at JQ!!:yuk:

Also, there will be a JQ tech crew base in Bangers within 18 months....:cool: