Issue 11: The CA-15 Story

Last financial year was a bleak one for them all. Qantas suffered a loss of $21m which would have only been turned around by the sale of a 7 4 7 to Eastern. Trans Australia made a very modest profit, a few hundred thousand dollars and again this was aided by the sale of aircraft. It is difficult to evaluate Ansett’s performance as its operations are grouped together with the dozen or so other operating divisions of that empire. We would, however, be surprised if they fared any better than rival TAA considering the latter carried a higher revenue producing payload for the year.

What this points to is that airlines, no matter what they fly, where they fly or how much they are underwritten by governments, must make a profit in order to invest in the future. Our three majors will be investing in excess of a billion dollars through this decade in new equipment and associated support facilities. This money can only be generated if sufficient working capital can be set aside for the future, continuing losses mean a reduction in the purchase of new aircraft and eventually higher operating overheads as older equipment requires more per flight hour maintenance to remain serviceable.

A day’s lost activity in the fragile airline environment can often mean the year-end difference between profit and loss. It is to this end that the incessant industrial demands placed upon our airlines in the past eight months should be deplored by any person who derives his, or her, income and future from the aviation sector.

The radar technicians strike cost the airlines, primarily the domestic carriers, millions of dollars in delayed flights, additional fuel burnt and a mass exodus away from air travel by a public sick to the teeth with being blackmailed. Then came the Qantas stewards fiasco. The more you delved into that dispute the murkier the view became. Who was right and who was wrong hardly matters as little was achieved except ensuring that Qantas loses a record sum for 1980/81. Finally (at the time of writing) we had the air hostesses strike.

Being one of those hapless souls who was actually stranded certainly makes you question the integrity of the purveyors of such industrial action, particularly on the eve of Easter. The result- cancelled flights, cancelled tickets and tens of thousands of people in the related tourist industry see their Easter profit go down the drain. So you can be cynical and say they shouldn’t be making a quid out of Easter, or whatever. Well, tell that to the people who depend upon the travelling public for their wages! Tell the frail old grandmother at Hobart airport, already waiting six hours for her flight that it has been cancelled and she won’t be able to see her daughter and grandchildren this Easter. And for all this the hostiles gained the princely sum of $15, or an increase of around 5 to 7 per cent! That strike alone cost the two domestics millions of dollars in immediate lost revenue, it also cost them something far more important, and that was simply credibility.

I was hoping to fly to Melbourne last January, but I scrubbed the trip due to the fragility of the industrial situation at that time. The constant threat of the entire operation being scrubbed at the eleventh hour simply made it not worth contemplating seriously in the first place. That is what happens when an industry begins to lose customer confidence. How many people took the same attitude as me in January and have since cancelled tentative journeys through lack of confidence in being able to get there and back without being left high and dry?

Another important point is that our current image overseas is badly in tatters. Overseas travel agents, particularly in the rich North American market, are losing faith in the reliability of Australia as a market. How can a San Francisco travel agent recommend to their customers a holiday Down Under when the last five couples who took the trip got stranded?

Ironically enough I was participating in the annual Ansett Airlines-sponsored aviation and travel writers conference when myself and my colleagues were stranded in Tasmania by the hostess strike. It was made clear by the various travel industry delegates that our international reputation was on the line if industrial disruption continued to wreak havoc with our transport system. It was disheartening enough to sit there listening to these prophets of doom (knowing just how correct they were) but to think that we ourselves would be subjected to the very inconvenience outlined by the travel delegates the very next day really brought home the reality of the problem.

What we are saying is that IF the hostiles, the stewards, the radar technicians, the refuellers and inevitably every other single group that makes up our vast civil aviation industry continues to screw every last drop of financial blood from the industry then one day it may just be too late to enjoy the fruits of a viable and profit oriented aviation sector.