[Anonymous]

[Bucksnet]

Qantas makes first annual loss since it was privatised in 1995, and cancels 35 Boeing 787 orders: –

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/23/qantas-aircraft-second-half-loss

Talk on Bloomberg this morning is that it will cancel its partnership with BA, although no word on leaving oneworld.

[Shearer]

Does London – Sydney qualify as a “flagship” route for QF?
Does QF share half revenue on it with BA?

[Bucksnet]

Under the JSA costs and revenue are shared. I don’t think that either of them should fly all the way, but ‘meet in the middle’ which would result in substantial cost savings.

Joyce is running the airline into the ground.

[Binman62]

The current management of this firm is shocking.

I am alone in being thoroughly fed up with the fuel costs excuse? The price of oil has been over $100 a barrel for 3 if not 4 years. In that time airlines and Qantas were in the forefront, have handed out enormous surcharges and yet even now the costs of fuel, a cost of doing business, is being blamed for the incompetence of a bullying and aggressive management.

There was, of course industrial disputes which have no doubt made things worse, but the most damaging action for Qantas was taken by its management when it grounded without warning the entire airline. People we left stranded across the globe including children the elderly and others in places they had never expected to be……and why …well in order to close a engineering base in MEL with claims costs were too high!…..Yet EK have just opened an engineering bases in MEL…..go figure.

The JSA is not working, there is little co operation other than at SIN and and the mess around the BKK route was entirely caused by Qantas and their aggressive and uncoperative attitude.

Operational competence is another issue and leaving 2 x A380 hulls on the ground at LHR for 14 hours a days suggest that there is no strategy and no ideas on how to make things better. They gave up day time flights to Australia claiming no one wanted day time yet CX SQ MH and others are operating in just this manner. Meanwhile the are 4 JSA flights from T3 within 90 mins each night and clearly from the results they are not producing the required revenue.

This is an airline that is being systematically dismantled with routes being handed to Jetstar, an airline which on my recent experience makes Ryan air look full service!

Sad really, this was once a great carrier. The A380 and the QF crew are great product but they are badly led and I suspect that given the cancellation of the Dreamliner orders QF international will not be around for very much longer!!!

[JohnPhelanAustralia]

Binman, you’re quite entitled to have a very anti-QF stance, though why you display such a fervour about it I don’t understand.

But I do need to correct major inaccuracies in your rant above.

Re the industrial dispute – yes, QF grounded its aircraft for about 36 hours in October 2011, to ensure government intervention to end a long-running industrial dispute that had been going on for the best part of a year and which involved wildcat strikes which were playing havoc with the airline and its customers – of which I’m a fairly frequent one – and I can tell you, QF’s pax were getting mightily pissed off by the union’s constant disruptions. The company tactic was successful and immediately ended the industrial action and, ultimately, the dispute.

Now, the inaccuracies:

* the industrial action had NOTHING to do with the closure of the engineering base in MEL. QF did not even flag this until six months AFTER the industrial dispute. You also neglected to mention that the closure of the MEL base is being balanced by the major EXPANSION of the more modern engineering base in BNE, and the MEL base staff are being offered jobs in BNE.

* It is emotive and misleading to say the pax were “stranded” in the October incident – QF accommodated everyone in hotels in their departure or transit cities. No one was left without a place to stay or food to eat. QF paid for all of this, so pax were not out of pocket. They were inconvenienced and delayed, but not “stranded”. And QF has paid generous compensation and provided further free flights to all those affected.

On the broader level:
* QF will not be cancelling the JSA with BA
* QF will not be leaving oneworld.

[drflight]

I think I am correct in remembering Qantas used to charter their B747s which sat at Heathrow during the day to cruise lines. They were ideal for shifting passengers to Mediterranean ports. Presumably they cannot do the same with the A380 since only certain airports can accept the A380.

Binman does have a valaid point about day flights. I made several flight to Ozzie using SIA leaving Heathrow about 12:30 and found this to be much more comfortable than the overnight flights late evening out of Heathrow.

[EU_Flyer]

The issue of the A380s and 744s parking at LHR is a very valid one.
The same goes for BA aircraft at SYD which arrive early morning and leave late afternoon. Terrible fleet utilisation and I’m not convinced of the argument that pax don’t want to fly during the day.

The problem for QF is that it’s not competitive in Europe as it uses LHR as a hub and for any pax wishing to fly beyond LON to Europe it means inevitable backtracking when competitors such as EK and the likes of Etihad, SQ, CX all offer 1 stop options ex AUS to Europe.

Secondly, Australia is an end point destination unlike SIN, HKG, LHR, FRA which operate as hubs for their respective local airlines. QF can only really attract pax travelling to and from Europe/Australia but not connecting traffic (excluding NZ which doesn’t make much impact anyway).

Therefore QF has, by virtue of competition and geography, become marginalised and less relevant. Only by entering into a arrangement with EK or MH can QF become competitive between Europe and Australia by offering 1 stop options between the 2 continents via Asia and/or DXB.

Lastly, the QF product is good but not amazing. The Skybed, while now flat,m can’t compete with the likes of CX and EK who now offer direct aisle access. Sure we like to think that Qantas offers a unique service proposition, but frankly the crew are just as hot and miss as any western airline.

Coupled with Virgin Australia’s new CEO and brand repositioning, QF is facing grief from all directions.

Poor Alan Joyce.

[PaulRWoods]

Maybe leaving 78,000 passengers stranded was not that succesful in winning “hearts and minds”? I am working in Solomon Islands and my home base is in Germany. Holding a Qantas-ticket at that time the lock-down of Qantas left me wondering if I would be home for Christmas 2011. That was a sensation I did not like then and I do not now. Flying 3 times a year from Europe to the Solomons on business class seems to be peanuts for some people but to me being with my family when I like to be with them is very important. Therefore: I never fly Qantas again!

[austline]

Bin Man62, I think you my mean that Etihad has opened a engineering facility in Mel, don’t get to excited it is not that big,not sure that EK has anything here.

QF certainly does have its share of problems with its long haul division but from a pax point of view I do not think EK is the panacea, while transiting through LHR is bad enough; QF should be in T5 with all BA long haul flights, DXB’s crowded airport and the dreadful EK J lounge facilities are a nother thing. I think I will be using CX if QF abandons SIN and FRA.

A lot of QF’s problems have been broughtabout upon themselves with poor fleet planning and re active policies. The cancelling of the 787- 900 is a worry as it looks like QF are just going to downsize their long haul flying and use code shares as much as possible

I agree with John P on last year’s industrial action QF had to bring it to a head and I applaud them for taking this action.

Finally where is the Chairman? I can’t remember ever seeing Leigh Clifford at a press conference.

A lot of talk in the press about Joyce and is his tenure coming to an end. Interesting times for QF.

[SimonS1]

To be honest JohnPhelan I think it depends on how you define the word “stranded”.

The Oxford dictionary defines it as ‘leaving someone without the means to move from somewhere’. By cancelling all flights this surely is exactly what happened. Whether they paid for food and hotels doesn’t really make it acceptable.

[PaulRWoods]

@SimonS1: I fully agree with your assessment!

[BigDog.]

I agree also with SimonS1

Why is it that airlines appear to have more than their fair share of CEO/Chairmen who wish to be in the spotlight?

Alan Joyce, Willie Walsh, SRB appear most adept at:
– Blaming everyone & everything else in public, but themselves
(fuelprices, taxes, unfair competition, unions, governments, economic cycles, the weather, volcanoes etc – are, shock/horror, a fact of life; learn to live with them, plan for them and effectively manage the situation -its your job)
– Making fustian assertions
– Vainglorious, public acts of desperation (preceded by their own mismanagement, self-delusion and lack of foresight).

[PaulRWoods]

Another move by Qantas (if I am wrong please correct me) of flying Olympic gold and silver medal winners on business class but bronze had to be content with premium economy. If I were a bronze medal winner that would have been my last flight with Qantas ever.

[Binman62]

Thye could have fitted all the medal winners into the business class cabin and still sold over 20 seats!!!! Only haflf of the 14 in First would have been taken so poor was their showing at the London games.

[Author]

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