Contrails

Well everyone – government, unions and management and of course the travelling public who in greater numbers steadfastly refuse to pay the fares required to keep a legacy airline flying.

The words of a sobbing Ansett flight attendant on Melbourne radio are coming back, this time to haunt Qantas staff and management.

“I never thought it could happen to us I never thought it could happen to us,” is all she could get out through the sobbing.

But she didn’t have to say anymore because that summed up the staff and union attitude to the longevity of Ansett.

The management blunders – and there were many – of course went all the way back to Sir Peter Abeles.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce promised when he took over it [staff management relations] would be different.

It certainly is but not in the positive way he was alluding to.

It’s worse – much worse, than the Dixon era something everyone thought was simply not possible.

The message to all the Qantas unions is simple.

Nobody in the country has job security so why should you?

The message to Qantas international pilots is simple.

Only 17.5 per cent of overseas travelers want to fly or are prepared to pay to fly Qantas with over 20 per cent preferring low cost alternatives.

And that number is increasing every day.

For engineers offshore maintenance is an economic reality and to suggest by association that the likes of Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Cathay pacific have sloppy standards is scurrilous.

The fear campaign is simply driving passengers away from Qantas and thus putting engineering jobs at risk – permanently!

To the TWU why have you done a favorable and flexible deal with Virgin Blue but want to hobble Qantas?

For Qantas management however is the most damming message.

Why are you last to market with innovations that would attract passengers and a Marc Newson designed interior for the A380 simply doesn’t cut it and being first to have in-seat IFE screen in premium economy doesn’t work either.

Qantas management has found a raft of reasons to be last to market with seat back videos and premium economy and still can’t bring themselves to buy the 777.

It was six years after frequent flyer programs were launched before Qantas offered a program and the list goes on.

If a tiny little airline across the Tasman can reinvent travel and inspire its staff to walk on water why can’t Qantas.

And the Australian government must ensure that Qantas is not disadvantaged as it further liberalizes aviation and it needs to consider that capital decisions such as aircraft purchases are twenty year propositions.

Contrails doesn’t know where this tragic industrial impasse started but ENOUGH!

Qantas management and the unions need to call timeout.

Roll over all EBA for 12 months and sit down and reinvent Qantas and travel from the ground up with robust incentives for staff.

For the clock is ticking.

There is absolutely nothing to stop Singapore Airlines or Emirates from setting up an Australian domestic operation with greenfields contracts.

And that would signal the end of Qantas as we know it.

At press time the rhetoric was getting worse by the day with threats that the industrial action could be worse than the waterfront dispute of 1998 and the pilot’s strike of 1989 ringing out from media doorstops.

Those analogies from unions are interesting because the unions comprehensively lost both of those disputes.

And the tabling of a “bullying email” telling pilots not to be princesses and toughen up at Senate hearing by a Jetstar Base Pilot for some dramatic headlines from the lay media was cheap.

The reality was he was a Perth boy in a mentoring role who didn’t want the base closed but he was tight according to Jetstar captains who spoke to Contrails.

The situation at Qantas and Jetstar is almost as toxic as the disaster at the Fuchashima nuclear power plant.

There seems to be little if any common ground.

The Centre of Asia Aviation’s Executive Chairman Peter Harbison has warned that the first to go will be Qantas’ international operations.

“They face oblivion within months if unions press ahead with their claims for guaranteed job security,” he has warned.

“The international division is seriously fragile and simply cannot win in the looming confrontation.”

Harbison, one of the world’s most respected analysts says the proposition is simple, albeit tragic; “If they (Qantas international) cave into the union demands they will be wiped out and a prolonged strike will have the same result.

Joyce has the same message; “Some of these demands would put us out of business.”