Qantas CEO Blames passengers for delays
 

From an NZ news site..

"Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has blamed passengers for contributing to mass delays at Sydney Airport"

"The airport continues to blame a multitude of factors, including “inexperienced” passengers who are slowing down the security screening process."

I always thought the passengers were a nuisance...Are they really necessary?

I read he did apologise later for his remarks but of course what else could he do,it has been very clear over the years that apart from a few of his so called 'leadership team' who dare not criticise him he has no respect for government,passengers or his workforce.
I heard his sidekick Steph Tully apologising on radio the other day about the call centre fiasco & of course it was a rehearsed response with the aim of covering her ass & blaming covid.
Instead of blaming anyone they can for their disgusting customer service,they should start listening to the customers who they continually belittle whilst at the same time continue to fill their bank accounts with no guilt.

They have shed so many staff, that they only have passengers left to blame...

AJ a great contributor to the current debacle. His time at the helm of his low cost juggernaut refining the airline ticket cost structure to make baggage an extra now has everyone taking the biggest bag possible as carry on. Airport security parent company offshore. You reap what you sow. I notice the service at QF also slipped massively and now far from a premium carrier since he let all the ground people go. 5-10mins just to get an aircraft door open and then another 30mins waiting for a checked bag. That combined with the check in and security debacles will make a lot of people especially the leisure type really assess their quick weekend escape. Is all the aggravation worth it for a weekend in Melbourne or the Gold Coast.

I think if you only have to wait 30 mins for a checked bag you should actually consider yourself very lucky.
I was told by somebody that works there that on a sunday afternoon a few weeks back there were aircraft sitting on taxiways waiting up to an hour to get onto a gate as there were no staff to load the departing aircraft.

To a certain extent, maybe 10%, he is right - I dropped the kids at the airport on Thursday evening as they were going to see their mother for the first time in 12 months. I had checked them in online, so went to a self service kiosk to get the bag tags and then shot straight off to join the (massive) queue for security........with checked baggage still in hand!!! It was a SACL terminal person who pointed out my error as I was about to join the line in the old VA valet parking area. Hands up, I'm out of practice at this travelling lark. To be fair also, we were with VA and it only took 50 mins or so from getting in the terminal and getting to the gate. I'm not sure if the massive queue was for JQ or security????

However, the other 90% is due to staff shortages all over the airport. Everyone from the mentioned security to ramp staff, cleaners, caterers, check in, co-ordinators, crew and engineering is short because as usual companies let go of the operational staff (the people that make the system work), but probably kept proportionally more staff back in fluffy towers managing social media, marketing and "management". I've seen it every time we go through something like this (9/11, GFC, SARS etc), but this time it is worse due to the extended period and depth of cuts and people have left the industry and found other careers and jobs, and in many cases better paid with more sociable hours so aren't interested in coming back. Airlines' commercial departments have thrown the flights back into the schedules to get cash flowing again, but without any real co-ordination with the operational departments, and the airports have been caught out in the process. I'm not sure what the answer is to this as obviously the cuts had to be made, but really a bit more of a planned, gradual ramp up matched to the amount of operational staff available should have been in mind, and not going straight up 110% of pre-covid capacity at the first opportunity.

Swissport seem to be a tad undermanned. Next to the roo the other day, we noticed they unloaded all bags, sat in rain on tarmac, loaded next lot on, then drove the inbound bags to the terminal after they removed the stairs and ready for push. 30 mins sounds about right.

Some airlines now offer increased cabin baggage for a similar fee vs checked bags.

Swissport baggage handling is under staffed by 500 Australia wide. It’s a Casual workforce and most of them are 18-25 years old. They don’t resign they just never turn up and no certificate required for sickies so they just don’t turn up as they don’t give a ****. The Chicken has come home to roost and going for an ultra cheap casual workforce will cost QF way more than if they had ever just kept the reliable in house crew that they just shafted last year. I’m actually happy, this has shown them that 20’s something MBA idiots don’t make decisions that are practical. Bring it! QF is shot for at least 2 months, Get these idiot managers to actually do something. I will sit and laugh while they scramble….it’s hilarious.

Swissport offering $2000 sign on bonus for Melbourne baggage handlers at the moment. Must be super super desperate.

They are also offering pax from other ports to SYD and MEL do a days work pax home with $1000 bonus, tell me how much the casual workforce helps? Lol I’m just laughing at a bunch of new idiots that have no idea how the real world works…

About 15 years ago I worked at a place that wanted to cut flight crew pay by 10% due to some challenging market conditions at the time. When they asked for my opinion on that, I told them half the captains would walk to Qatar and Etihad (boom years) and the costs associated with a lack of bodies would cost tens of millions in cash burn for cancelled flights and some eye watering overtime rates for whoever remained. The executives disagreed and opted for the wage cuts. Needless to say they got it wrong, three quarters of captains walked and I earnt three times my normal wage that year. Executives however lived to see another day.

Completely agree & was told the same thing by somebody that works there a couple of weeks ago.
If its a sunny day or theres some event on that is more important than going to work to throw bags for a few hours well you can guess what takes priority.
The reliable in house crew did get paid pretty well & had good conditions but in return they provided a good service & there were many long time serving guys with the experience required to see & fix a problem quickly.
Now,as you say,the swissport people are a lowly paid casualised workforce who are not there to think & just go through the motions if & when they decide to turn up.
I wonder if ex kiwi farmer & now QF int & domestic ceo Andrew David who boasted about how much money getting rid of the unionised workforce would save is having any regrets about his brilliant decision.

I highly doubt it. His bonus cheque would have cleared long ago and if QF ever goes tits up he’ll just wander off into some other highly paid job.

Just wait till one of these new kids on the block buts a ding in one of those carbon fibre Dreamliners.

is that for real, they’re ’deadheading’ baggage handlers around???

There was close to a dozen QF RPT flights into MEL cancelled today and then reassigned as a crew only ferry at the same arrival time.

short of Cabin crew in one direction or short of ground staff at BNE/SYD/MEL and an empty, crew only flight is easier to turn around than a passenger service?

Yet, Qantas and just about every other international airline and most of the world's domestic operations are conducted with outsourced workforces. Some of Virgin's airports in this country have customer service staff dressed as VA staff but employed by Swissport or someone else.

So, every other airline in the world can use outsourced ramp and baggage (including Qantas outside Australia and at many places within for many years, even going back to when domestic was 'TAA') but somehow Qantas is different. I think you might find that part of the reason at least, is the lack of work available during the pandemic has led people to find other work and many of them have not returned.

My reading of the situation from the recent delays at Sydney Airport, is that this is primarily the fault of a lack of security staff. Anyone who's spent any time at an airport knows that security standards are set by regulation, the resources are also set at a minimum and if for whatever reason the minimum resources are not available, the standard is maintained by the process being slowed down. Not sure about VA but Qantas employs checked baggage screening and AAA at all it's domestic airports, including Sydney, so that process, when subject to a lack of security personnel, slows down check in as well. You can have a 100 check in staff but it won't make any difference if the belts keep stopping because of a lack of screening personnel downstream. There are several levels of screening that stop bags and/or diverts them to be further examined. If there aren't enough security staff then that process has to be stopped while they deal with each level of escalation.

With the call centre debacle, no dispute QF has itself to blame. My view is to not offshore the work - I'm sure that the offshore people are very competent and intelligent but basically, it's like Telstra, if you want outsource something to service a predominantly English-speaking market, then contract to someone who has staff that can identifiably speak the English language. The only slack that can be cut Qantas is that the call times have increased due to multiple questions about covid screening, etc. I believe I read somewhere where there were some problems with certain functions on their website as well which increased the number of calls.

Please watch the TV coverage, at least 50% of which has been from the VA terminal, with queues along the elevated roadway snaking back toward the Qantas terminal so this is obviously not just Qantas.

As for the lack of baggage staff, aren't VA having the same problem?? Is this a lack of baggage staff or is it because of delays up-line causing inbound arrivals to be delayed, thus stretching resources to the maximum and causing delays?? Not saying it's one or the other but inbound delays have knock-on effects that can cause disruptions and delays because the staff are rostered for a schedule.

No such thing as RPT anymore now that Part 121 and Part 135 have come into force. Just sayin'

Today was OK in SYD, MEL not so much, apparently MEL will have record numbers or pax Monday and Tuesday and I can guarantee it will be a catering and baggage handler cluster. I got away with a 2 hour delay at midday and felt happy, Stockholm Syndrome? Tomorrow I won’t be surprised with a 4-6 hour delay. Aerial yep security have been an issue but to be honest QF have had 2 years to prepare yet they are offering free meditation and Zumba lessons in the office while the core business burns..20’s something MBA’s have been proven over the years to be useless yet they still use them lol! The suits need to leave their little world and get to the airport and interact with pax and help on the front line, the time for bull**** emails has ended, get out there and do something useful !

You must be fun at parties..

Just sayin’ 🙄