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Qantas pilots leaving for Gulf carriers – report

written by australianaviation.com.au | January 4, 2012

Roughly 150 Qantas pilots have gone on unpaid leave with making taking jobs with Gulf based carriers, according to a report.

About 150 Qantas pilots have taken unpaid leave and some may not be coming back as the airline cuts services in a bid to revive money losing international operations, Bloomberg has reported.

Qantas confirmed the Bloomberg report but declined to elaborate, the news agency reported.

Many of the pilots are going on leave to join Gulf-based carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, Australian & International Pilots Association vice president Richard Woodward told Bloomberg.

“Our young guys are voting with their feet,” Woodward was quoted as saying. “Because of retrenchment and downsizing, they’re going directly to our competitors, which will exacerbate our problems.”

Qantas, which employs some 2000 pilots, announced reductions in overseas services in August. That followed losses of about $200 million a year on international routes.

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The pilots union, which remains locked in a long running labour dispute with Qantas, said restructuring plans could see the airline with as many as 500 excess pilots by 2015.

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Comments (17)

  • A.B

    says:

    Good!! Gives me even more chance of getting a job at Qantas as a pilot once I get my CPL!!!!

  • Jimmy

    says:

    So these are the guys that complain about Qantas wanting to set-up an offshore operation, but then set themselves up offshore. Seems rather two faced.

  • Bags

    says:

    A.B your and idiot.

  • Steve

    says:

    Qantas pilots don’t even have the guts to resign when they take another job. Joyce should revoke their unpaid leave and give them the ultimatum: come back or resign.

  • Ex Qf, now sandpit

    says:

    No Jimmy,

    The off shoring of the operation actually means the QF pilots will ultimately lose their jobs any way, as QF will offer terms of employment suitable only for 25yo asian pilots, not 45yo ozzy’s with a family (and having to move to these asian ports).

    The guys leaving or left (me included) are cutting our losses (career wise) and making sure we can provide for our families.

    Hardly two faced.

  • Ex Qf, now sandpit

    says:

    Oh, and I resigned. Never coming back to QF.

  • Bh

    says:

    I think you’ll find that Qantas has encouraged its pilots to do this as they don’t have enough work for them… That way if things pick up in a few years then its easy to bring them back…

  • Dave

    says:

    All Qantas pilots are welcome here in EK, it is amazing the inert comments above are from those that have not experienced the anxiety of a company dying.

  • Jimmy

    says:

    Well Dave the company may well be dying, but the big boss has a plan to grow it and keep it in existance but the staff, pilots in particular are up in arms about it. It seems what they want is the status quo to remain, but as you said the company is dying, so clearly that is not sustainable so something needs to be done. So back to this plan I guess.

  • James B

    says:

    I recently read an article in Australian Aviation about Ansett’s demise. We seem to be repeating the same mistakes. Will we ever learn? Einstein is famous for saying “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. Perhaps change is inevitable?

  • Dane

    says:

    what did they expect? emirates and other gulf airlines have to money throw around to lure disgruntled pilots from around the globe whereas qantas doesn’t.

  • Coffee

    says:

    Qantas has the money and profits but doesn’t want the pilots and other staff to share any benefits, it wants the money to go to executive payments, like so many other top companies- CEO’s make a bomb, even if they bomb!! Not for everyone else in the company. Perhaps if Qantas looked at their fleet planning! Oh dear, we are operating gas guzzling 76’s and 744’s and the profits are down!! Oh dear again, the price of gas has gone up and we now need more economic a/c!!! Of course, it’s the employees fault that we didn’t buy 777’s ages ago and therefore they have to pay the penalty for that extremely bad decision, no way should it come from executive payouts!!!

  • stvfranks

    says:

    Jimmy dont believe all you read. Joyce and co are trashing a great airline for their own gain. I am a share holder and I am horrified by the actions of these men. (Joyce, Clifford and Dixon) They have neglected Qantas mainline, slashed services, degraded the product and whilst doing this snatched huge amounts of money as pay and bonuses. Joyce has just had a $600,000 bonus paid to him and he has been responsible for losses in Jetstar Singapore, huge loses in Vietnam, been responsible for a huge drop in the share price, stopped dividends, grounded the airline and disrupted 80,000 passengers, inflamed industrial action by refusing to negotiate with unions, manipulated the Australian industrial system without any regard to the consequences and misled share holders at the AGM by failing to disclose essential information about this grounding. Joyce is running a service related company where he is despised by his staff. If you doubt this just ask any staff member what they think of their CEO. In short Joyce and Clifford are a disaster for Qantas and should be sacked by share holders. James Strong and Cosgrove should be ashamed of them selves for allowing these three (Joyce,Clifford and Dixon) to do what they have to Qantas.

  • Dan

    says:

    Time to sack Joyce and get Rob Fyfe from Air NZ

  • Aviartrix

    says:

    Sorry, chaps. We’re keeping Rob!

  • Prince of Persia

    says:

    Well, soon they regret and will be come back home!

  • Rob Stafford

    says:

    I am an Australian, global resident, and I have been in the industry flying for many years and I can honestly say this.
    The novelty wears off quick, which is why most old pilots are grumpy. The money is good enough for what we do, especially after a few years in the game.
    Most pilots become egotistical wankers. We are paid way too much for sitting on our bums for hours on end bored out of our minds, watching movies and/or reading the papers, just itching to get to the hotel/home. The best part of the job if long haul, is the 4-5 days off after a short few days abroad. For domestic flyers, it bumming around hotels in cities where you may catch up with mates. And the guys in the industry know this but never share this with the normal people as the ego gets in the way. We like to big ourselves up, it’s a fact, and it’s all we have after years of being stuck in a cockpit.
    Anyway the world has too many pilots and most of them want to be on a wide body aircraft. The new guys will accept any salary to get a start. Some even pay to fly in the early days, hence the path is set to sell yourself to the large carriers. No upstart cares about the money or the negatives of the job until a few years in, when they realise that the dream sold to them as teenagers by flying schools, was a bit of a con. I am not a bitter pilot as I kept my integrity and never sold myself short and ended up earning 4 times as much as the wide body flyers in a niche market that I won’t comment on. But when I speak to some friends in the game most seem bitter about where they are and what’s in store for them in the future.

    In the USA some poor buggers take home half to 2/3rd of what Aussies get paid. Pilots in Australia get paid enough compared to the rest of the world and it has nothing to do with training, it has to do with the fact that we don’t share our borders with anyone, we are an island. Go to Europe, Asia, N.America, S.America, Africa, could you imagine competing with a country that you could actually see looking through a fence. Most Australians have their heads up their bums when it comes to the rest of the world, which is why they find all this “out sourcing cheaper pilots” a shock to the system. If you all really want to make a change to the great Australia that most of us grew up in, stop out sourcing all those super cheap products from China. Hypocrites.

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