Jetconnect ZK aircraft to now be VH registered
 

A recent email today being sent to all employees at the QF subsidiary Jetconnect regarding the change over of all ZK registered aircraft to QF mainline Australian VH registered. This also includes the JC Long Haul cabin crew who will cease operating on B737 fleet. Where will this go from here, I'm not sure, however will Jetconnect slowly reduce in size to then be picked up by QF mainline but with an Auckland and Wellington Base? Jetconnect pilots operating Australian domestic sectors??

If there is any insight as to how Jetconnect can exist when the crew are operating VH tails under Australian QF AOC yet on different contracts with a different company? It happens with Cobham and Network here in Australia however they are different AOC's. I'm unsure how the Australian Pilots union will allow this to happen?

Extract from John Gissing's email:

Last month we announced that Emirates was withdrawing a large part of its Trans-Tasman flying and that Qantas would respond with additional A330 services. We’ve been working with Jetconnect, to manage the subsequent capacity and schedule changes. Today Qantas has advised Jetconnect of our preferred option to transition the seven New Zealand registered 737s onto the Qantas Air Operators Certificate (AOC). The proposal would see Jetconnect Flight and Cabin Crew continue to operate on the Tasman as they do today, however, flying the VH tail. This would allow us to improve the overall 737 fleet’s utilisation and efficiency. Consultation with Jetconnect’s affected employees has begun today and we will continue to keep you updated.

The 737s freed up by the above would enable more flying to new and existing destinations. Details are being confirmed but we’ll keep you informed over the coming weeks.

Perhaps they will adopt the Jetstar model of having aircraft all VH registered on the same AOC but with different contracts in Australia and New Zealand.

That’s a slippery slope if they’re allowed to fly VH tails.

Qantas planes, Qantas pilots.

My thoughts are that the JC guys and gals have just had a huge win. The email this morning says that AIPA are involved, and I believe they will have to be put onto the SH award if the aircraft are flown under he QF AOC.

That would be the ideal outcome for the JC pilots, and they can only keep their fingers crossed. But if it's going to cost QF money it's probably wishful thinking. If that were to happen, how would they fit into the QF seniority list or would they?
Is this just the thin edge of the wedge along with talk of A320's going to NW as the SH eba expires next year?

So Jitconnect now becomes Jetconnect.

One thing for sure in the airline business for the past 90 years is that change is always inevitable..

What, like the 717?

Yeah.... Qantas planes, Contract pilots...

Just another step closer to foreign pilots being able to fly domestic RPT. That's how it should be viewed.
It's possible this is another sign Jetconnect might be wound up...but hey...with Network flying a bunch of 320's around QF will have their low cost labour sorted. The Network announcement is the biggie and one which may have large ramifications for all. Jetconnect is now the side show, the new Jetstar has arrived. As they have done in the past, the company will do what it likes. This management and the next. Being an ar*ehole is no longer an EBA negotiating tool...because ar*eholes are ar*eholes. I'm starting to feel so stressed it must be time for long term sick leave. Wait.....where are all the pilots going to come from?

Like any magician, the key is to not watch where he says, watch elsewhere. Network was the distraction. Jetconnect is the issue and foreign pilots in VH registered the key.

They never finished the war on the pilots, only the pilots surrendered. it is a never ending game to lower unit cost.

Qantas has big execution risk in this strategy against declining supply.

The pilot union will be rendered impotent again. They play checkers and management play chess... Jetconnect is an expired concept, its worth nothing as the 'tax and arbitrage benefits' of its existence are long expired.

A short term fix to self induced pilot shortage on fleet problems is the wedge they want, circumventing the Fair Work Act under the pretext of manufactured impending crisis.

Wash rinse and repeat

Virgin have been doing it for a couple of years now, trans tasman and flights to the pacific islands are all operated VANZ crew on VH registered 737s.

Get on the slippery dip!

The average Joe Traveller doesn't know (nor care) what the rego is. It's the logo on the tail that they are interested in....

Fascinating times ahead.

“AIPA has long been concerned about the operation of Jetconnect. In 2010 we took action in the Fair Work Commission alleging that the Jetconnect pilots were not New Zealand employees, but rather Australian employees and entitled to the protections of the Fair Work Act.”

Surely they’d be considered Australian employees flying VH planes on an Aussie AOC. Would expect to see all JC pilots brought in at the bottom of the mainline seniority list.

I would say jetconnect is finished, and they will be using the crew to fly until mainline have enough to crew it themselves.

if you had any clue as to the jetconnect pilot make up you'd realise they were far more Australian than your deputy prime minister.....

I would presume dear sir that a New Zealand registered aircraft is required to have a New Zealand licensed pilot fly it. I assume you are familiar with ICAO license rules?:

So the issue is more to do with license issue than nationality. Qantas are pushing in trade circles for free movement of labour rather like the Schengen area we have in Europe, perhaps this is exactly what they use a crew shortage of their own making to lever.

There is or was an inter country licensing agreement between NZ and Aus which allowed either licensed pilot to fly the others aircraft. Certainly that was the case about 8 years ago from memory. Every month there are between 10-20 sim sessions for Jetconnect in MEL plus Tiger yet not enough Sim time for mainline. Go figure. There is no way that we AIPA should entertain some sort of amalgamation. Let Air New Zealand take them all or go and join ME 3, China or some other contract mob. If you want a job with QF mainline jump through the hoops and join at the bottom of the seniority like everyone else. Don’t forget the Integration Agreement. I can’t see any scope for this to be considered as some sort of Tasman LOA. And what’s it to do with Gissing?

My thoughts are that the JC guys and gals have just had a huge win.

My thoughts are ... they most definitely haven't. Just my thoughts though.

So the issue is more to do with license issue than nationality. Qantas are pushing in trade circles for free movement of labour rather like the Schengen area we have in Europe, perhaps this is exactly what they use a crew shortage of their own making to lever.[/QUOTE]


You couldn't be more correct. The last flight I got between Auckland and Christchurch was conducted by a VH airplane with a captain from Melbourne and an FO from bumf@ck NSW. And yet I still didn't fear my job was under threat or that Kim Jong was about to invade....

If I get this idea right - they will only need to push for activation of Civil Aviation Convention article 83bis protocol. Same way as it is done in other parts of the world, it will allow CASA to rubberstamp NZ (or any other country) licenses as valid for a certain NZ operator using VH registered aircraft.

The good example of where it is all going is an abundance of VQ/VP (Bermuda) registered aircraft in Europe. Unties the hands of employers in terms of sourcing the workforce.

Spot on, think of commercial shipping and flags of convenience...



One can but hope for Qantas, Jetconnect and other pilots , the pilot union is burning the midnight oil! Very Oldmeadow

JG is the Group Executive of AA&S (Associated Airlines and Services).

This includes Eastern, Sunstate, Network, Jetconnect, and Cobham.

So announcements regarding Network and Jetconnect have everything to do with him.


DIVOSH!

So where are all the 330s coming from to fly trans Tazman?

One daily MEL-SIN and one daily SYD-SIN previously operated by A330 will be A380 from March next year.

As for Jetconnect Pilots, they should go to the bottom of the Q list as of today, they are then quarantined to their current position and base, and if they want to move elsewhere it’s only in accordance with seniority.

And therefore so should Qlink/JQ/Network/EFA Pilots? Or no, because these are "mainline routes"?

This has been coming for a while now, it's been no secret that the whole Jetconnect arrangement was on the chopping block. The inefficiency of the ZK 737 airframe utilisation is the main driver, I think. They want the airframes to fly domestically after a Tasman sector. Under current arrangements, they can't do it. Reason: Fair Work Act. The minute a Jetconnect pilot flies a domestic sector, they must be employed under Australian conditions (SHWA). It's taken them time to work it out because of it's legal and industrial complexity.

If I recall correctly, some years ago mainline pilots were flying ZK 737's for a period of 6 months or so. They were all issued validation letters to allow this (as required, as Rated De pointed out). This was only allowed as a short term arrangement. I'm sure the same could be arranged to allow NZ crew to do the opposite, but in the long term I would predict they would need an AUS licence and be employed under the SHWA with an NZ basing or whatever other deal is negotiated with AIPA.

Whether the current pilots can be absorbed into QF mainline would also be dependent upon a deal with AIPA. It's been done before, after the Ansett demise. Rated 737 pilots worked under contract on QF 737's for a fixed period then had the option to be employed full time and added into the seniority list. However, I don't think any of them were contracted or employed as Captains, only F/O.

So, I would assume that the status quo will continue (under letters of validation), and the long term solution will be the result of an industrial negotiation/agreement.

The good thing about this for pilots in general is that QF have realised that the dodgy arrangement that was introduced to save on unit pilot costs and increase industrial pressure is not actually saving anything on the bottom line. Hopefully that will be a long term industrial lesson for QF.

Here's hoping this only improves the pay and conditions for the NZ pilots, and also offers them good prospects for the future.

Pure speculation here, but the worst case scenario that I can predict for current NZ Captains, is that they might lose a stripe at some point if they wish to continue. For F/O's I don't predict any downside other than longer time to command, perhaps mitigated by the opportunity to fly mainline widebody while they wait.

Interesting post Derfred. Unfortunately Jetconnect pilots have been told since the original announcement today that there will be no change to terms/conditions & pay and no joining QF mainline seniority.

It'll be status quo but flying with VH registered aircraft. Be interesting to see if AIPA do have any influence in this. Spare a thought also for some of the other JC staff who may not survive these changes.

I would have thought it would mirror what Virgin did a few years ago ie Maintain the advantage of having crew based in NZ but lose the overheads of a separate AOC.
How did that work out for the NZ based Virgin pilots?

No thoughts are to be spared for anybody unless they are a mainline pilot.

Serves every other non mainline pilot right for not having the patience to stay in GA earning nothing until qantas opened the employment door every few years or more. Shame on anyone that had no other choice than to take the only jobs that were on offer.

All this talk of Jetconnect pilots finding themselves on a Qantas seniority list on Australian T&Cs is a pipe dream. The preferred model already exists in the form of VH registered A320's and Dash 8s with orange stars on the tail flying around New Zealand now. The people flying these machines in NZ are operating under Australian AOCs. They are paid under local NZ conditions with no hope of easy transfer to their Australian based equivalent because the NZ operation is desperate enough for crew as it is. Surely the Jetconnect model will simply move to a version of this set up?

There is no connection between an aoc and an eba.

It has the potential to get untidy but there is no barrier to qf paying the nz guys exactly what they are paying them now to fly the vh tailed 73’s.

There is nothing from a (casa) regulatory perspective, once everyone is checked into the qf system (under the qf aoc), stopping a jetconnect first officer for example jumping into a jet with a qf skipper and doing a perth return (or vice versa).

The thing stopping that “operationally convenient” but industrially untidy behaviour is the eba.

Not saying it wont cause a huge ****fight because once the nz guys/gals are checked into the qf training and checking system they are for all intents and purposes qf pilots (from a licencing/regulatory perspective, not industrially)

I think there’s still a lot of things to fall into place before anything happens. Note the email said ‘our preferred option’...this is far from set in stone.

The scenario you refer to is covered by ‘transfer of business’ legislation

Perhaps this adds weight to the argument that Jetconnect is here purely to avoid paying Australian terms and conditions, and maybe this could be revisited.

You can look to Jetstar to see how this may pan out.

All Jetstar Aust/ NZ flying are VH tails. Pilots are EBA or NZ CEA. The Tasman and NZ flying is done by a mix of both contracts, but NZ CEA pilots are not allowed to fly (or even train) domestically in Australia. At the moment this is by agreement only.

See no reason why the QF situation would not use this as a template

The difference here between the Jetstar NZ model is that JQ NZ crew also do domestic NZ flying not just the Tasman.

With JetConnect crew flying only a very limited trans Tasman network surely there will be huge efficiency gains if those crew can do domestic sectors or wider international ops too?

1111111111¹¹11

You have got to be joking. Jetconnect pilots are contractors which applied knowing that they had a fast path to command wearing a Qantas uniform. If they want mainline T&C apply to mainline meeting the minimum standards. Ask a Jetstar, QLink or Cobham pilot how they got into mainline?
The company can’t crew the 737 fleet properly at the moment. Any talk of some sort of shonky seniority list and watch what happens to engagement once again. Talking about what 80 pilots at best. My heart bleeds.
And in case you’ve all forgotten
https://youtu.be/68f_JdPmvlM

I hope you are not representative of the Qantas pilots attitude to their peers. Why do you deserve to be a Qantas pilot and not them? Does anybody choose to work for a contractor over legacy options? Did they choose to work for JC because they wanted to wear a Qantas uniform? Was Qantas even employing at the time?

The reality that seems to get lost on people like you, is that Qantas has created many competing streams of employment that employ sporadically and rarely open the door to the mothership. Pilots have had to be content with what is on offer at the time in order to provide for their families. What a wonderful world it would be if it was only Qantas and Virgin and we could work for either one as opposed to (insert ****ty shell/contractor/b scale).

It's your attitude towards your peers, yes peers, that makes the adversarial IR strategies work.

Maybe because he passed the Pysch Test/Screening/Sim Ride/Interview and they didn't.

And you know that do you? How many times has mainline recruited in the last 15 years? How many other group pilots have had the opportunity to even attempt that amazing process? Flying around in the exact same aircraft as you gods isn't enough to prove that they can actually do the job that you were screened for?

This is the point that I am making, people don't choose to go to the ****ty jobs, they take the opportunities that are available. The difference between the real Qantas pilots and the other scum is that the real pilots were given an opportunity to attempt and pass that process.

You mean all that BS that the self licking HR departments have been forcing on us for past 2 decades that Pilots vocally moan about having nothing to do with the job?

Seriously, some legacy pilots have their heads stuffed so far up their asses that they’ve lost sight of the real world of Aviation outside their own little bubbles... some of them never knew to begin with.

If you can fly a Jet for Jetconnect, Virgin, J* etc you can fly one for QANTAS, Air New Zealand or any other Legacy carrier... all that stands in the way is the red tape.

As pilots, we have no control over who hires when, and after several redundancies I’ll be damned if I was going to sit in the LHS of a turbo-prop in NZ for $50k any longer than I had too when the Aussies in NZ were offering nearly double that to fly a jet while I waited for Air NZ to hire.

Bitch and moan all you like, but it wasn’t your wife and kids being asked to put their lives on hold while daddy “stood on his morals” and turned down promotional opportunities because it might offend someone on the other side of the ditch.

I left Jetconnect a number of years ago, but regardless of the outcome here, none of their pilots deserve some of the vitriol that gets spewed at them on these forums.

Don’t hate the players, hate the game.