With the number of resignations from JC over the past 2 years (before this even started), that email, to me, comes across as a dangling carrot to keep flights crewed. But I'm a glass half empty kinda guy. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

If JC "management" had any desire to retain staff they would have ratified the contract 2 years ago. If QANTAS had any burning concerns over the rate of resignations at JC, they would have intervened by now.

But instead of resolving the turnover, rumor has it they're hiring DEC's on temporary contracts instead....

The whole management pyramid is changing from the top down. Even down to the operations department based at Auckland Airport.

Is there anyone within Qantas mainline, especially the 737, who can shed some insider understanding of how QF plan to make this work? There has been countless discussions of what 'might'happen but from where I am sitting this is the start of some fairly substantial changes for Jetconnect.

No one knows how it will work, all I can say is everyone is up in arms about it. QF will have their plan but it won’t work, that’s a given. The best outcome is JC pilots get a seniority number in QF mainline with mainline terms and conditions, but have a contract to the 737 short term until they are replaced by training then slot in the seniority position available. Similar to when ansett went under and pilots were contracted to the 737.

Preparatory to having the Tasman operated only by the Koru perhaps?

I very much doubt that.

Feel for the Jetconnect guys and gals.
So management send a cheer up message which pretty much says your jobs will go.
As others have said plenty of mega bucks contracts out of AKL with China Southern etc. Commuter friendly. More than double the dollars,more time off. Job security.
Be a brave person to look a secure gift horse in the mouth.
Or just keep getting treated like s$&@ with the job insecurity.
Word on the street is that the fortunate ones have or are planning to run for the hills before it's too late.

To be a door mat it is necessary to first lay down.

What we are probably witnessing is the wind down of a strategy that was central to a pilot versus pilot mantra. Sadly for aviation this has proved the winning formula for decades.

Establishing the precedent of foreign crews in VH registered aircraft is the target, despite protests to the contrary, the company knows resistance will be a dollar short and a day late.

For the people caught up in it, just because the narrative of management changes for time being, they aren't changing for any other reason than necessity. Your family, your career and stability the least of their concerns. The model knows no other way.

One can either accept their value of your 'worth' as pilots or realise that the market for your services places far more value on it than they do..

To refresh your memory, once upon at time JC did NZ domestic, then this thing called Jetstar was created.... None of that were decisions made by JC pilots

When Jetstar was created in Australia, Qantas shrunk. As a result many pilots were demoted. Redundancies were very close and if not for the couple of hundred pilots that took LWOP there would have been redundancies. None of that were the decisions made by QF pilots but they wore the consequences.

When Jetstar was created in NZ, trans Tasman flying previously operated by mainline crews was transferred to the newly nil flying and defunct NZ domestic Jetconnect. Once again QF pilots wore the consequences.

Now that Jetconnect is unable to operate their airframes efficiently, why are Qantas pilots once again the ones who have to wear the consequences.... including an admitted possibility that future managements may use the proposed structure for reasons beyond originally intended?

Keg you are a legend.

I also feel for the blokes at JC, psychologically the threat of losing your job is harder than losing your job. I know what it feels like after spending 10 years at the bottom of the QF seniority list.

At least Alan was paid 24 million last year.

Hopefully you all come and join the QF seniority list. My hot tip is avoid the sandpit. It’s a crap place with crap weather and full of crap people.

We are in furious agreement, however it is not possibility, it is their target.

If that is the management position, Bruce testified JC efficiency came from 'Having the aircraft in New Zealand allows an early morning departure' or words to that effect. Unfortunately neither the Senators nor Bruce knew of hotels. To maintain accounts, auditors, and all such complexities rose from the ashes of Ansett New Zealand and seemed a 'better' option for Qantas, wonder why?


In 2003 Jetconnect's principal activity was;

Is the employment and on-hire of leasing of cabin crew to operate domestic commercial aircraft flights within New Zealand.


to;


'Operation and management of aircraft in order to fulfill an operating schedule of trans Tasman commercial passenger flights'


Put the JC pilots on converted licences into the seniority system, pay them accordingly. My bet is Qantas will balk at doing something that reasonable because they are always many steps ahead and people are the least of their consideration. This is another precedent that they want set they care zero for the people, their careers or any damage done. It is anyone's guess how labour representatives will spin it to the pilot body.

Hi Rated De. My understanding is that with the changes to the EK schedule, the issue Jetconnect faces is the inability to roster their ZK airframes. I don't think they any issues with rostering their crews efficiently if they have access to a wider number of airframes.

So it's possible to roster the Jetconnect crews, they'd just get appalling airframe utilisation. Solution? Let them fly VH airframes where QF is able to integrate and schedule them more efficiently across the wider network.

I should point out that I bear no ill will toward Jetconnect crew. Having been through similar times of uncertainty in 23 years in QF I understand completely the way that these sorts of issues impact on family, work, etc.

The issue though is that having had 'lack of efficiency' used against me and my colleagues a number of times over the years as the reason to do us over you'll pardon my cycnicism and frustration when I see Jetconnect structural problems being used as a reason for QF to move heaven and earth to retain the cheaper business unit.

I have colleagues and friends who have been waiting for 16 years and are still 5ish years away from a 737 command where they live on the east coast. What is the time to command in Jetconnect? Two years? Speaks volumes.

Rated
The Company could easily integrate these pilots within the Qantas Pilot Group and make them more efficient flying in the Australian Domestic market on Australian Terms and Conditions. Hell they would even save money for the Shareholders. But it is NOT about saving money for the Shareholders, it is holding a hammer over the various pilot groups. They spent $1.6 billion on Jetstar they will waste some more money in a blink of a eye!

NZ and VA announced today that they will be doing extra flying AKL-BNE

I remember back at Qlink walking through an empty Melbourne terminal when the fleet was grounded feeling sick and angry inside about what was happening to my QF group colleagues. The ground staff looked soul destroyed wondering how the event would unfold and what it meant for them... it wasn’t a nice day.

Now as an Aussie sitting here at JC I once again feel the same sense of anger.

I myself didn’t come here as a back door into mainline. Mainline wasn’t recruiting when I came here; to me this was just an opportunity, a steping stone to contract flying elsewhere in the world.

Just as at Qlink no one else here at JC has any illusions that they work for QFA or that it’s a way to get in. Fact is most of the Kiwi guys have no interest in heading across the ditch or being integrated on the bottom of the list because they’re happy here; this is their home after all and many of them have been here from the domestic days.

But JC is no longer a domestic airline in NZ and shortly we will cease to be an airline at all; instead becoming a true labour hire company. For me as an Aussie whether we end up integrated onto the bottom of the list or not is second to protecting the contract and reputation that you guys at mainline have fought to protect over many many years. The way that happens is that Jetconnnect guys need to stop undervaluing themselves as professional aviators. In the current climate if we can’t achieve that then there is something seriously wrong. For the good of the industry as a whole we need to unite and put a stop to this race to the bottom.

To me, it appears as though unless you work for Qantas, Qantas pilots couldn’t give two ****s about you.

What a nice industry it is downunder!

Easy morno. I hope to see Jetconnect crew offered full employment in Qantas. That would likely result in a pay rise and significantly better future options than they have currently. Of course that may not be on their current fleet or base but hey, that applies equally to hundreds of current Qantas pilots too.

Jog on Champ!
If you despise Qantas as much as it seems you do, then this doesn’t concern you!

Genuine questions;
Was there similar angst from VA pilots when Pac Blue Pilots started flying VH tails?
What has been the IR impact of Pac Blue Pilots flying VH?
Doesn’t Jetstar NZ fly VH and was there similar reaction from Jetstar Australia Pilots?
I ask because I’m unsure how JC Pilots flying VH on the Tasman impacts the QF short haul contract if they are unable to fly domestic ops.
Cheers