Fabulous! Our next CEO is going to spend all her time banging on about how great it is that a "young woman can make it in a mans world" rather than actually running the airline! If she is going to take over, she should drop the gender crap, nobody cares, ask Julia. Whoever can turn the airline around, regardless of gender will gain the respect they deserve.

Finally an admission that the decision to ground the fleet was taken by AJ and the Board. Not sure if that is consistent with the evidence before the Senate or other public statements about the brain snap taken by AJ alone.

Let's hope not, it is my view, Livi hasn't kicked too many goals in her role since Qantas marketing director Lewis Pullen departed.

Qantas marketing boss Lewis Pullen exits as Olivia Wirth steps up - mUmBRELLA


Since then, the Qantas group image only comes across "confused" or a group of "well paid managers in crisis" lurching from one policy to the next.. the line in the sand thing springs to mind, (remember that scroll thingy?) then going to Canberra with cap in hand asking for a bail out, which was very poorly handled in my view, too many mixed messages which just opened a big door for ridicule. I doubt there are any current Qantas group top managers capable of turning around "brand Qantas" and gaining the trust of the staff at the same time. Too much dirty water has passed under the bridge, it's a trust thing.

New vision from outside of the group is what is really required, I think the current lot are stuck in a rut, and only appear to be good at digging deeper holes for themselves.. OW has been a very big part of this process.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-G...yceo-hole2.jpg

As an aside, but related

Pullen's last campaign was a failure but seriously, what have OW done since taking over? The only thing they keep carrying on about is the TV involement....with Modern Family and the Voice (how that actually translates to people actually booking us is another story)

But since then, all marketing seem to be worried about is limiting the brand damage.

Re the grounding, did anyone see Alan Joyce or Olivia, or any of the rest of the management team, actually at the airports, explaining the decision to the disrupted passengers, or was that left to the frontline staff!!

Now I'm confused. I thought Alan just woke up one morning and thought to himself 'I think I will ground the airline'. I have always understood the board and the rest of the buisness knew nothing about it.

These guys have told so many lies over the last 5 years that they can't remember what they've said and no longer know what's fact or fiction.

They're just hoping all of us can't remember either.

Wrong! :mad:

God help us.
 

OW offers nothing.

In person Lewis was a very approachable and down to earth bloke. Despite the ad not being a hit there has been nothing significant since it was launched. I've seen worse.

The last half baked attempt was with the new front-line uniform. It lasted 2 weeks.

Seems the QF advertising budget all goes to brand/group Jetstar.

If things don't change at the AGM and things continue like they are then we are doomed.

Yep, Livi has something in her handbag that Alan doesn't have in his - a digital strategy. Silly me thinking Qantas was all about flying passengers from A to B reliably and safely.

Yes they did, but it was Alan's HUGE gamble. He took a punt that if he grounded the airline, FWA would step in and decide the issue in favour of Qantas. They did step in, but only after the Federal Government made application to terminate the unions protected industrial action resulting only that the unions and Qantas then had to sit down to reach agreement. Pretty much where they already were before the grounding.

Nothing achieved and sooooooo much lost.


See decision here.

https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/dec...1fwafb7444.htm

Hold the phone!! It looks like Alan has turned things around.

Travellers warned to watch out for airfare creep as price war ends

Amaaaazing :ok:

Nah, just using mainline again to cover for J* Japan
amaaaaaaaazing! (added a couple more a's...) Miyuki Suzuki is starting to sound like another upbeat AJ & JH. :E

One of the real problems with having trophy managers in aviation businesses is that they really have no idea about what is going on so they build large teams around them and massively increase the bureaucracy and thereby increasing their inefficiency and the cost of running an airline. Aviation seems to suffer from this issue of us/them in management in that management think only they can do it so they breed people to be 'managers' and block folks with actual operational knowledge and skills from being in senior roles who don't need a cast of thousands propping them up.

The best example of this was a advertisiment for the CPA which was online recently where a young woman who had just graduated and because of her newly minted qualification she is now able to run a engineering department in Qantas despite having zero idea about what goes on. She actually admits this during the ad, to which I just shake my head. No wonder we see so many ludicrus expensive mistakes made by airlines if this is how it is done.

Bean counters employing other bean counters. What else do you need?
Modern aircraft don't need as much maintenance so just kick the tyres, fill 'er up and let 'er go!

(Good grief!!!!!)

• What's the definition of a trophy manager?
  
• Is it one that every other competitor wants to hire?
  
• Has there been a migration of strategically key managers to competitors in recent years, I mean subsequent to JB and the people who followed him across to Virgin?

I look at the current crop of high-profile managers at QF and wonder which one, if any, would be going straight to any self-respecting pool room?

I was referring to the trend of hiring people who have zero industry expertise but have either excellent political or client contacts, are a celebrity, or are used as a ethic or gender diversification promotion etc

Often this is how ex politicians and/or staffers pick up work, they have the contacts in government that a business finds favourable so they get a senior management role, or a board seat.

Alan should be ecstatic. He keeps his job despite ongoing failures such as this.....
Jetstar Japan losses

........and just out of interest...
Just completed one of these DFW marathons in the last few days.
A little over 380 pax on each sector, with First, Business & Premium economy full of commercial pax - no staff upgraded at all.
Burnt 190T on the way over and 214T on the way back.
Could have taken another 25T of pax/cargo over and probably could have squeezed another 5 or 6T if needed on the way home.

Jetstar Japan has a 60% market share of the low cost market! that makes up 6% of the total market? 6 percent of the market????

No wonder Qantas is in the state it is.....these people have lost the plot.

Air Asia is re-entering the Japanese LCC space in a partnership with Japan's largest online retailer. The LCC market is 3% of the total acording to a Reuters article I just read. Everyone seems to be planning to add capacity to their LCC operations there, and Air Asia will make nine LCCs competing with Jetstar.

Also, there is a severe pilot shortage in Japan...they are reportedly going to increase the retirement age past the current 64 because a third of the LCC pilots are over 60.

Does anyone on this forum believe that Jetstar Japan will ever make a dollar let alone repay the huge investment sunk into it? Qantas angels need not reply.

Oh....and Qantas has almost half of the shares and investment, but only 33% of the voting stock.

I expect that some smart professor might make an entire business school course on Joyce's tenure at Qantas. It will be about hubris and consultants, and how to avoid both.

And in more good news from Vietnam...