The A350 will never fly in Qantas colors. Alan's focus is on Alliance and Network and all his other industrial relations wedges.

Remember Qantas as an airline only exists for management to make war on its staff. The fact it fly's people any where for the occasional profit is immaterial.

AJ became CEO in 2008. Since then we’ve heard that Jetstar will take over mainline, that RedQ will take over mainline, that Jetconnect will take mainline, that Network will take over mainline, that an externally crewed 787/350 company will take over mainline, that Alliance will take over mainline.

And yet 13 years down the track mainline is still here, and maybe a year from now will be back at 2019 levels of flying where recruiting was going at full steam.

You don’t think that if there was this grand plan to get rid of mainline they would’ve done it a lot earlier and not waited over 13 years to put it into action? With all the industrial shocks and opportunities it’s never come to fruition has it? If any entity was going to take over mainline it would have been JQ, but a mainline operation has co existed alongside them and will continue to do so in the future.

Maybe your grand conspiracy theory is just a theory?

It’s not even a theory, it’s just a conspiracy.

I’ve had my opinions on the mainline operation plenty of times before, but I agree with you, if there really was some plan, I’m sure it would have been actioned by now.

Qantas will fly the A350.

Well, no-one thought Network would be operating ex Jetstar aircraft painted in Qantaslink colours. And I wouldn't be surprised if these Network A320s start doing Jetstar routes out of Perth to Bali and Singapore.

As long as Lord Daddy has his way, there will be no flights to Bali anytime soon. End of 2022 of you're lucky.

At the moment those ex JQ 320s have issues doing any sectors at all....

Like others have said there’s always this thought of a “grand conspiracy” to eradicate mainline. If that were to happen wouldn’t the biggest shock to commercial aviation since WW2 have been the perfect catalyst to do it? And what has been the reality, a pay freeze on the next EBAs? That’s it? That’s substantially better than a lot of other airlines including Australia’s other airline.

If management have this overarching idea to get rid of mainline they’re not very competent or willing to carry it out as far as I can see.

I always look at what’s written between the lines. Statements that full domestic schedule to all states from Perth is due to reopen Feb 1 (post school holidays).

And a cryptic but telling comment in the last press release that enough information on travel and border policy has been gained from all states is now sufficient to stand up all crew now with no plans for any more stand downs. Now as a big proportion of crew, especially CC, are needed to operate widebody transcons then these statements and actions wouldn’t have been made if behind the scenes airlines weren’t being told more about reopening plans than governments reveal in press releases because I don’t think they would hesitate to stand down any crew if they needed to.

It’s like the CEO of Cricket Aus saying he’s very confident after negotiations the 5th Ashes cricket in Perth will go ahead as scheduled 5 days after the SCG test, so obviously he (as a business leader, like airline managers) are being given more information than us plebs are given through the mass media.

There’s quite a lot of excited chatter coming from the Red rat Airbus outfit over west.

They’re going to be taking over a large proportion of mainline flying out of Perth, some of the NEOs on order are to be diverted west and a whole lot of new and existing international routes will be flown. With all this vast Airbus experience they’re now accumulating there’s talk they’ll be crewing Operation Sunrise using A350s too!

If you don’t believe it just ask anyone there and they’ll tell you!

I heard they’re taking the 380 flying too. Also, I’m sure eastern and sunstate are getting jets ‘next year’.

My daughter told all her friends she’s getting a pony for Christmas.

Reality is a b*tch.

Given the fact they’re having personnel shortages during the one time in aviation history it should be very easy to hang onto crew I guess they need to entice people not to leave somehow.

I look forward to seeing all that unfold……:rolleyes:

The shame of it is that the devotees among them truly believe it’s going to happen.

Lol. Is that like how JQ were going to fly all the red tail QF 787s? I remember that one getting a run for months on PPRUNE!

Does it really matter who flies them? It is jobs in the group so what is the problem?

From that comment I presume you’re not mainline.

From someone who is, I’d say - yes it matters who fly them. Career stagnation directly caused by the growth of other entities is a real effect.

I would never begrudge another pilot earning a dollar, but your comment is a little naive if you believe it.

Really Ollie?

Well yes, yes it does. If Network were to be given 12 A350s they’d be recruiting like crazy. The F/O that joined two years ago is a Captain in another two.

Meanwhile the 20 year F/O in mainline watches their command slide to the right by another decade.

So who flies new long haul aeroplanes is massively important.

QF has repeatedly said how the business case for Sunrise is even stronger now. QF told mainline pilots there was a deadline to sign on to the A350 under terms and conditions set by the company that would satisfy the business case. Mainline pilots agreed to those terms. I can’t see QF now reneging on that deal. I’m not even sure they’d be able to.

So any Network pilot spruiking that they are going to be flying QF A350s is deluding themselves and others.

Yes, worth considering that most recent LH EA that the company railroaded through. The wins for the company were really all to do with the A350; everything else was pretty good for the pilots. Would the company really just give up what they were so desperate to have?

im sure when jq light starts up you’ll care. Or maybe you won’t because you got your command in jq mark 1 after a long 2 years as FO. But at 20 years, yes, it’s farking important

I understand those points Keg, I guess what I am saying is you can stress about ‘who gets the planes’ all you like but ultimately Management will do whatever they fell like doing. At the end of the day if they decide to give some of the airframes to Network or Qlink or Jetstar at least it is still expansion in the Group and that could well bring opportunities for pilots across the group, Personally I can’t see the Sunrise aircraft going anywhere but Mainline as the Company spent a lot of time negotiating the terms of this. I absolutely could see a time in the future where more Qantas branded aircraft are flown by entities such as Jetconnect and Network and were Group Pilots can transfer between the entities with relative ease.

Don’t see that happening. Would be nice if it were so and would also be nice if there’d been a group seniority list with standardized pay rather than constant playing off of subsidiaries against eachother. More chance of winning the lottery though I’d say

When the whole point is ‘divide and conquer’, no, group pilots won’t be transferring between entities with ease.