137 flights with 45+ mins delays
 

Qantas 20 June 08
137 flights with delays of more than 45mins. Way to go Geoff.

Airline / Scheduled / Tracked/ Departed / Cancelled /15-30 / 30-45 / 45+ / Ontime
Qantas / ---516----- / ---470--- / ---444---- / -----26------ /-- 69-- / --54-- / 137 /--- 41%

The world is watching
 

Item from news site crikey.com may be of interest ...



5 . Flying on Qantas next week? You might want to read this
Ben Sandilands writes:

If this week is any guide, next week’s rolling stop work meetings by Qantas ground engineers will make flying on the airline hell.

On Tuesday just after midnight a 747, QF2 made an emergency return landing at London Heathrow after smoke filled the cabin, and the pilots, wearing oxygen masks, dumped 77 tonnes of fuel on the way back.

On Wednesday a domestic Qantas 767 docked at Sydney with smoke pouring out of a defective undercarriage. And while delays blamed on overtime bans by ground engineers crippled the timetable, several jets were flown abroad empty, apparently to get the minimum maintenance needed for them to legally re-enter passenger service.

Get used to minimum maintenance. The reason Qantas can’t fly to schedule is that it dare not knowingly break the rules on the legal minimums without being liable for criminal prosecutions potentially far more serious than systematically stealing from its freight clients through illegal price fixing.

A late Qantas jet should be a safe Qantas jet. Assuming the managers who are standing in for engineers know what they are doing.

This coming week is critical to the dispute between Qantas and its licensed engineers and mechanics. If Qantas finds a way to replace them root and branch, which is one of the rumours going around, it will cost way more than giving in to demands for a 5% rather than 3% pay rise for each of the next three years. And if a screw up kills a jetload of passengers it costs them "everything".

Or maybe not. It is an unpleasant reality that in any airline there is a team that calculates and manages risk. Including the risk of loosing a "hull", a pseudonym for several hundred people wrapped in aluminium, say once every ten or twenty years versus the terrible inefficiencies of the no-longer fashionable cultures of "excessive" excellence in flight and operational standards that built the world’s leading carriers, including Qantas.

The cost of compliance with regulations is one of the few areas left, other than labor "reforms", where savings can be made.

CASA is holding the line. An email received this morning from within the safety regulator says:

Were keeping a close eye on all that is going on in Qantas. We are making it clear to them that the standards set down in their manuals and the regulations must be met at all times.

There are no short cuts being granted. It is up to Qantas to manage this situation but we will take appropriate action if standards are not met.

Bugger me

:ooh::ooh::ooh::ooh::ooh:

Hi All. Thought I mite post after reading for some time.

Yesterday, a meeting was held in Brisbane Heavy Maintenance between unions, (ALAEA, AMWU, AWU and CEPU) and QF (Brent Earnshaw, manager Brisbane Heavy Maint., James Moreley from IR and David Hyland). The meeting was "medeated" by a representative from the ACTU.

The objective was to provide unions with another opportunity to discuss the Heavy Maintenance flexibilities clause. (Suite of rosters, 20th day banking and DILPH banking). The offer is back on it seems.

So after four hours of discussion, it came down to this.

Employees in Brisbane Heavy accept the flexibilities and QF will commit to A330 Heavy maintenance onshore. No movement on pay. No movement on 3%. No incentive whatsoever other than a commitment to A330 work onshore.

The carrot on the stick is rotten. People don't want to eat it.

We are expected to vote within the next fortnight on this clause being included in our EBA’s.

$hit sandwiches anyone? Yes, we know they were served up months ago and you declined but let's try again anyway albeit, with stale bread.

What about flexibilities for Mel Heavy? They can come and talk to us about them.....But at no stage should the Flexibilities for Heavy (Victoria or Brisvegas) be put back in the EBA for all to vote on!!!!!!:=

With all the stress of loosing customer work and trying to deal with the ramifications of QE management's mess up, I thought I would take my family to the movies for some good quality time. We're going to see the new blockbuster "Honey (Geoff) I've shrunk the company!" - directed by David and Murray.

might be a bit off topic at the moment, but i hear a certain DMM in FNQ is offering type training on the the space shuttle. does anyone know what the tail payment or grade is for this new rig. and would also like to know what the allowance is (ie how many rubles) for a posting on the ISS?
:rolleyes:

fixitdude
What about flexibilities for Mel Heavy? They can come and talk to us about them.....But at no stage should
the Flexibilities for Heavy (Victoria or Brisvegas) be put back in the EBA for all to vote on!!!!!!:=


I thought that was the reason for the original proposal to fail.
If the management wants "(Suite of rosters, 20th day banking and DILPH banking).", why not give it to them.

"So after four hours of discussion, it came down to this.
Employees in Brisbane Heavy accept the flexibilities and QF will commit to A330 Heavy maintenance onshore. "

Too easy, just have a local agreement, it could begin next month.
(Brent Earnshaw, manager Brisbane Heavy Maint., James Moreley from IR and David Hyland)
Surely these guys know that already, why not put an extended hour shift
in there for everyone to vote on too. Assclowns.

Happily retired and out of their clutches...
 

The current situation is not a management mess up, they planned it this way. They want to chop the LAME numbers and re build the system their way, they been aiming this way for the last three years or more.

This is all someones management wet dream out of some text book, they even quote it if you listen between the lines.

You guy's are right they don't know how operating an airline works because they don't care about the way it "was" done they are following some warped ideal, they will keep the minimum in house and sell the rest.

Man, it sucks, all we stood for, you know old fogey sentiments like "integrity" and "the safety of the a/c comes first" and the pride in being an engineer means jack to these morons.

Yep, it's a conspiracy alright, and sad to say that at the end of the day they own the airline, sadly, we thought we were part of the family apparently not, aye.

What part of, you'll be offered employment with JH after QF closes the door on you, don't you understand ??????:ugh::ugh::ugh:

Who were the boro boys?

Dr Itzfukt,

"Who were the boro boys?"

Wouldn't want to give you a "BUM STEER"

Dr Itzfukt,

"Who were the boro boys?"

I've heard one of them could be at home at the helm of the star ship Enterprise (the next generation).

Getting rid of the foreign operator maintenance in my opinion has been planned way in advance, look at it from managements point of view, they have not got enough manpower to look after our own aircraft, and have little hope of attracting the necessary engineers on existing wages, so by getting rid of foreign contracts they have freed up some manpower from the S.I.T. that can be re-deployed to the jetbase to cover their shortfall as very few apprentices are coming through for the next few years and ames are leaving at an alarming rate, just another knee jerk reaction, reminds you of the NSW state government.

Don't forget....and i use a quote from Lateline......

"The disgraced former premier of Western Australia during the 1980s"

....I love cryptic clues........

There's always those free optus terminals is the SIT.........

So what is the full story? All I know is.
BIT Customer contracts canceled Manpower about now ~40 surplus
SIT Customer contracts canceled manpower about now ~ ?? surplus
MIT ?????
PIT ?????

Two quotes from Seldom Fixit;
Hmm, seems the FedSec is only rising in the membership's estimation....off the mark buddy. :rolleyes:

On this one you could be correct......but don't think we'll be sad. QF will HAVE to pay us out, simple legal technicality......and then JH will give us a 20k pay rise..........ooooooo that hurts.....I'm sooooooo scared...........:eek:

Mate, don't you get it.......most of the LAMEs would be happy if this happened as they are sick and tired of the Qantas twits running the show.:ok:

Oh, and if those twits think they'll still have a job "managing" the QF-JH contracts......think again.......that adds dollars to the equation.

Why would QANTAS Airways need QE to be a middle twit in the relationship with JH? Answer? They wouldn't.

Whatever the outcome it's bye bye MH DC KM DH K'scab'G etc !! :D:D:D

Umm, and who exactly is going to do these contracts..........oh that's right, appropriately licensed engineers who the likes of Emirates, Cathay, AMSA etc will recruit..........from where exactly........

Hmm, guess there'll be a few less 'spare' personnel after all.

Good one

So why dump the contracts to a third party? Did the overseas airlines refuse to send their own engineers or was the cost of this to be born by QE and assessed as too expensive? Is the actions of QE management a direct result of our stop work meetings and perhaps mounting pressure from the board/CASA? Is the dumping permanent or short term? Perhaps as alluded to in an earlier post, the source of the leaked email was perhaps becoming uneasy with the masters plans.

So many questions and so few answers. I'm struggling to keep up with these recent developments.