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Me? I'm retiring to a suitable spot in the country. Plan B, if it all gets too hard, is to take a yacht somewhere nicer for a few years, had a mate who sat out the last recession in the Mediterranean that way. |
Well said and I fear the same for Qantas and the country as we have "strived to be average". We could have been the Lufthansa of the Asia/Pacific region but we chose to dumb things down. In Germany at the Audi factory the best of the best engineers work on the R8 production line as it is 93% hand-built and guess what everyone wants to be chosen. In Australia they get sacked as they are too qualified and are replaced by less skilled workers. I am a little young to retire but I am looking to use my skills overseas as unless things change in this country this will be very ugly! As Rob Fyfe said in 2009 "we cannot compete on price so we must be innovative", How's Air New Zealand going?:ugh:
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In a unique new approach, Etihad Airways will have a capability to redirect orders to members of its equity alliance, the airlines in key markets around the world in which it holds minority shareholdings.* This will allow capacity to be allocated where most required, while improving fleet commonality and sharing significant cost synergies among equity alliance carriers.
So Etihad could re-alloacate orders to Virgin Australia? And they have bought: 50 A350 36 A320 25 777 30 787 And you reckon Joyce is smart Wal? I reckon Borghetti is smarter and I reckon the whole world knows it |
"In an innovative twist on pressuring manufacturers for discounts, the declaration that Qatar Airways and Emirates collaborated to extract volume discounts for Boeing for their respective 777X orders no doubt signalled to other airlines the benefits of a united buyers front. It was the first time the two commercial rivals had pooled their considerable financial weight against an aircraft manufacturer."
- Staff writer, Australian Aviation Magazine And in the largest ever purchase order in civil aviation history, Emirates have bought: 115 777-9X 35 777-8X 50 A380 Purchase rights for 50 more 777X Emirates allies with a commercial rival to buy planes at a discount. Can someone please remind me: who was Qantas in an alliance with again? I suppose the following may explain why, even if AJ was asked, what the answer was and why: "Qantas Keeps Sliding The ultimate source of the rot remains a subject of endless contention largely reflecting the speaker's viewpoint. For some, the problem is Joyce himself, or long-term strategic mistakes like the decision to opt for A380s over the nimbler 777, or a strategy of cutbacks that has undermined the premium product needed to justify the premium costs." - Michael Gisick, Australian Aviation Magazine "Time For Change? Qantas At The Crossroads" Once Qantas boasted it was the first around the world with the Super Connie and the first with the 707 outside the USA, and it was synonymous with the 747, while at TAA it was among the first airlines to order the 727 and DC-9. Today it is not even a participant in the race to adopt cutting-edge technology such as the A350 and 777X and Qantas is cancelling orders because it cannot afford the 787. Not buying the 777 has robbed the airline of the most versatile, fuel-efficient and reliable aircraft ever built, while for all bar a handful of routes to major hubs the A380 is too big for the airline when travellers are demanding point-to-point services and high frequency." and "X Marks The Spot Top executives at Qantas privately say the (777X) would be ideal for the airline, but its current financial woes prohibit any deal for now." - Geoffrey Thomas (yes THAT Geoffrey Thomas), Australian Aviation Magazine The intention here is not to bang on endlessly about not buying 777-200s & -300s. The point is it is widely recognised as a major strategic error. Let's not repeat the error. Qantas can't afford NOT to buy the 777X. The Qantas Group consists of almost 200 business entities. We're an airline: sell the "non-core" sh!t and buy aircraft - the right aircraft. |
The Qantas Group consists of almost 200 business entities. We're an airline: sell the "non-core" sh!t and buy aircraft - the right aircraft. |
Qantas can't afford NOT to buy the 777X. QF needs to devise and execute a back to profit strategy for international starting 28/2/14. QF is still strong on Pacific routes but needs to work out how it grows from here. The A380s are well suited for MEL/SYD-LAX. The problem is they don't have anything except thirsty 747s for any other route they may look at in North America. The 789 is the probable answer though I'm still confused as to what its capabilities exactly are. Europe is problematic. The EK alliance was supposed to overcome this but seems so far to have had the opposite effect. I don't know how an end-of-line carrier like QF can make Europe work against the might of ME and Asian carriers who will, by virtue of their location, always be able to do it better and cheaper. We are not privy to the EK partnership agreement but it is likely that it precludes QF doing anything radical in Europe that doesn't suit EK. This is not a partnership of equals. Asia is where QF is much weaker than it should be. Its weakness is not explained by fleet. The A330s are the current plane of choice for Asia. The problem is a lack of clarity in strategy over a number of years that has meant, if anything, QF has gone backwards whilst Asian competitors have grown inexorably. RedQ was a recognition of Qantas' weakness but it was an incredibly bad solution that was always doomed to fail. |
Sunfish, hold a bunk for me on that boat. My navigation skills are average i.e. I can always find a pub but often struggle finding my way home (autopilot problem). I now know that low tide has nothing to do with the amount of beer in my glass but I still can't find port on the boat even when the skipper is screaming it out aloud and pointing to the left hand side! There seems to be a recurring theme here....
Anyway, back to the issue and a refreshed drink. What were we talking about? |
The 777X is years away. It does not offer the salvation to Qantas Int'l. If Int'l is still losing money at its current rate when the 777X comes along there will be nothing left to save. |
He's back:
Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian QANTAS has vowed to tackle workplace change as part of its plea for emergency government help amid a political fight over whether union demands are putting companies at risk. As Joe Hockey attacks “militant” union leaders, Qantas is making industrial reform a key part of its case for a standby debt facility to cut its borrowing costs. Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce last night pledged to “accelerate” his changes to the airline and reminded Coalition MPs of the way he confronted unions in 2011 by shutting down flights for three days. Industrial relations are now central to the government debate on industry policy as the Treasurer insists that inefficient union deals helped Toyota decide this week to shut down local manufacturing in 2017. Bill Shorten accused Mr Hockey of misleading voters after Toyota said it had “never blamed the union” for its decision, but the Treasurer stood by his warnings that unions needed to give ground to help employers cut costs. “We all have to do the heavy lifting here, and the militancy of some of the union reps, not all of them but some of them, needs to be addressed by the unions themselves,” Mr Hockey said. “They have got to understand that we have got to compete with the rest of the world. “We are not an isolated economy that is just in a glass jar. We have to compete with the rest of the world.” The dispute over Toyota has raised the stakes in a political brawl about union power after Tony Abbott blamed wages and conditions for adding to costs at food producer SPC Ardmona, prompting that company to challenge his claims. The Qantas proposal is now the Abbott government’s next major decision on industry policy but is being set out on different terms to SPC, Toyota and General Motors Holden as the airline points to its record of tackling unions and cutting costs. The government’s negotiations with Qantas have narrowed significantly in recent weeks to focus on the standby debt facility as a short-term intervention while keeping ownership reform as a long-term option. The company’s proposal is for the government to agree to guarantee the airline’s new borrowing plans — for instance, to raise cash to buy new planes — but that this would earn a fee for Canberra for the use of the commonwealth’s sovereign debt rating. The outcome would lower the airline’s borrowing costs at a time when its debt rating has been cut to junk status and generate revenue for the federal government, but it would also add billions of dollars to the contingent liabilities on the federal budget. The Australian was told that ministers had given Mr Joyce a good hearing on the proposal yesterday before he spoke to Coalition MPs at a gathering at the National Gallery of Australia last night. One source said there was a “great deal of scepticism” about using a commonwealth debt guarantee to help the airline but that nobody wanted the company to fail. The government is bracing for a grim financial result when Qantas issues its half-year update later this month, making it very difficult to turn down the company’s request for assistance given its importance to transport and tourism. Demonstrating his intention to act on costs, Mr Joyce cited the 2011 flight shutdown in a speech last night to Coalition MPs set up by Liberal MP Dan Tehan, chairman of the Coalition’s “friends of tourism” group. “It was necessary to make sure that Qantas was not locked in to industrial arrangements that would prevent us from modernising,” Mr Joyce said. “These difficult decisions have been part of the biggest transformation since Qantas was privatised. “We’ve reduced unit costs by 20 per cent over four years, renewed our fleet with 130 new, fuel-efficient aircraft (and) introduced new technology on a large scale.” Mr Joyce made it clear last night he was ready to act just as aggressively in the future to keep costs down, answering Mr Abbott’s call last year for the company to put its “house in order” before seeking government help. “Now Qantas is moving into a new, accelerated phase of transformation — targeting $2 billion in cost reductions over three years,” he told the gathering. “Much of Qantas’s cost base is a legacy of 48 years of government ownership, from 1947 until 1995. “Over the next two years we will drive it down so that we close the gap between Qantas and its major competitors. I should point out ... that Jetstar already has the lowest cost base in the Australian market. There is no doubt there will be more hard decisions for Qantas over the months to come. We will look at all options and consider all steps to strengthen our business.” Qantas believes Mr Hockey sees the need to help the company in some way, given his remarks last week that the airline was a different case to others because it was held back by government-ownership regulations. Mr Joyce said he was “especially pleased” Mr Hockey drew a distinction between Qantas and companies such as Holden and SPC. He was expected to raise with senior ministers an Etihad bid to raise its stake in Virgin Australia to 22.9 per cent. Etihad chief executive James Hogan confirmed this week that the airline had applied to the Foreign Investment Review Board to buy an extra 3 per cent stake under the creep provisions of corporations law. Qantas urged the government to review the way the FIRB has been treating foreign airline ownership of Virgin after the airline’s controversial $350m capital raising last year. It argued that allowing state-owned Etihad and government-backed Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand to prop up Virgin had created an uneven playing field in Australian aviation. Qantas is particularly wary of Etihad, which has been on a global airline equity buying spree. Etihad is not listed, does not make its complete accounts publicly available and has prompted even Qantas partner Emirates to observe it does not have the Abu Dhabi airline’s “bottomless pit of cash”. Plus, Mr Joyce bolstered his argument with details of the cost-cutting measures the airline has taken. "We've reduced unit costs by 20 per cent over four years, renewed our fleet with 130 new, fuel-efficient aircraft, introduced new technology on a large scale and closed maintenance bases that had become marginal because of our younger, more efficient fleet," he told the gathering. "We have done more than any other Australian company to reform in the face of new economic realities." And Few Qantas cuts to be popular, Joyce tells Coalition MPs |
Interesting strategy to blame prior govt ownership up to 1995 for all ills, so how do these guys explain:
1. What they and their highly paid predecessors have been doing for 19 years. 2. If the gig was so bad, why did he accept the job?? When are these executives going to actually own the problem beyond spin and blaming everyone else. |
Alan Joyce strategy: promise to beat the **** out of his staff some more in return for a Government hand out.
To put that another way: "The floggings will continue until morale improves." |
Few Qantas cuts to be popular, Joyce tells Coalition MPs
the magnitude of the extra costs he plans to strip out by emphasising that they will be proportionately greater than those made to American Airlines when it was placed in bankruptcy protection. Read more: Few Qantas cuts to be popular, Joyce tells Coalition MPs |
Demonstrating his intention to act on costs, Mr Joyce cited the 2011 flight shutdown in a speech last night to Coalition MPs set up by Liberal MP Dan Tehan, chairman of the Coalition’s “friends of tourism” group. “It was necessary to make sure that Qantas was not locked in to industrial arrangements that would prevent us from modernising,” Mr Joyce said. “These difficult decisions have been part of the biggest transformation since Qantas was privatised. |
Sunfish: Alan Joyce strategy: promise to beat the **** out of his staff some more in return for a Government hand out. To put that another way: "The floggings will continue until morale improves." |
Albeit certain unions (not the ones wearing red ties) asking for double digit increases in the middle of the GFC, threatening to "slow bake" the airline, and announcing and cancelling strikes throwing service and OTP into disarray and losing the airline business customers to the competition, had nothing to do with it.
I agree that the FWA did not change the awards substantially, but equally I dont think that in those times, which certain unions saw as a lass stand under a labour government, a better agreement would have been reached |
the magnitude of the extra costs he plans to strip out by emphasising that they will be proportionately greater than those made to American Airlines when it was placed in bankruptcy protection. |
Hi, come aboard, my name is Sunfish, let me tell you about myself.....
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Sunfish's posts are informative, obviously based on extensive experience and a damn good read :ok:
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Hi, come aboard, my name is Sunfish, let me tell you about myself..... |
Demonstrating his intention to act on costs, Mr Joyce cited the 2011 flight shutdown in a speech last night to Coalition MPs set up by Liberal MP Dan Tehan, chairman of the Coalition’s “friends of tourism” group |
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