From good to great

Over the past four years Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who inherited a company with major structural problems, has stared down a handful of vocal and unrealistic unions to win over the hearts and minds of the staff to his vision of a new Qantas.

And that new Qantas is an airline that retains its operational excellence that sees it as the world’s safest airline and melds it with a leaner and committed group of staff.

Four years ago morale among the 30,000 Qantas Group staff was at an all-time low, product was dated and the airline was fighting seemingly endless industrial disruptions that were devastating forward bookings.

The grounding of Qantas on October 29 2011, a watershed in Australia’s airline industrial relations, set in motion the long road back to reality.

Airline staff gradually turned their backs on the worst of the union rhetoric and in some cases dumped their union representatives for younger more in touch leaders who have delivered excellent win-win outcomes.

Instead of staff against him Joyce now enjoys their support and possibly admiration.

Qantas is now a poster for what an airline should be with world class product being rolled out, the latest technology aircraft on order, committed staff and a strong balance sheet.

While it is true that the airline has had the benefit of lower fuel prices, that is only one part of a much bigger story with Joyce pulling all the right levers to get the settings almost perfect.

Of course there has been pain and 5,000 staff have lost their positions, although many of those have been voluntary redundancies so the actual number of “job losses” is somewhat less.

However, Joyce had no option but to make the structural changes required to keep Qantas competitive as Australians will simply not pay for outdated work practices or inefficiencies, particularly as the unions left the other Australian‑based airlines out of their sights.

And the phasing out of much older types like the 767 and the 747s has made many positions surplus just as more modern motor cars required far less maintenance.

But Australian jobs are extremely important and Qantas, with the wind at its back, must now get on the front foot and roll out cabin innovations and be first to market, not last, just as Air New Zealand has done.

Over the past six years Air New Zealand, after it got its house in order, has been a non-stop innovator and has won a string of prestigious awards

Joyce had no option but to make the structural changes required to keep Qantas competitive.

for its efforts. And those efforts have also delivered very high yields.

But rather than sit back Air New Zealand continues to innovate and is about to roll out a host of new products that are just smart – real smart.

There is an app on your device or Apple Watch that inquires if you would like your usual coffee when you enter the Air New Zealand lounge, biometric bag drop for international flights and electronic departure cards.

Last decade Air New Zealand launched a series of world-leading innovations such as bag drop and self-ticketing kiosks and is now focused on easing international travel which requires more – stress – levels of checking.

Later this year the airline will phase in the world’s first biometric bag drop whereby a reader will scan your passport and check that you are who you say you are and then will process your bag. The airline claims that will be the end of queues for international flights.

And as a bonus the system will also take a picture of your bag so if for some reason you don’t board your bag can be identified quickly by baggage handlers.

Next on the hit list is filling out the international departure card with the airline working with New Zealand customs to deliver all the information it has on you in the booking which would replace the card.

Technology has also touched down for parents who need to send their children unaccompanied on an Air New Zealand flight with communication to five interested parties at four major touch points of the journey.

The child wears a wrist band that is scanned when the child is handed over, when he or she boards, deplanes and then handed over to the guardian or parent at the end of the journey.

Now that Qantas has its structure and profitability right it needs to lead in the consumer space just as it is the world leader in the operational space.