Qantas to cut 1000 jobs

lufties

http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/qantas-cuts-1000-jobs-mulls-future-of-jetstar-and-frequent-flyers-20131205-2ys00.html

Wow it seems poor old QF is in the doldrums again, with shares reduced to junk status. Its sad to see this once great airline brought to this. Many blame Joyce and his cronies for pumping shed loads of cash into Jetstar Asia and letting QF go to the wall. Having spent time in Oz, I know people who take pride in their red tail national carrier. Feel sorry for those involved, awful news with christmas coming. It seems to be a race to the bottom, sacrifing hard working front line staff for the greed of a few.

ballooba

Qantas is a joke imo. I always hate flying with them. They're slow to load, food is rubbish (no choice whether to pay or not), planes are old and IFE is rubbish (Fawlty Towers re-runs). Their staff are hostile towards customers.

It's about time someone took them on. I feel any loyalty to them is based solely on nostalgia and misplaced patriotism.

lufties

ballooba wrote: »

Qantas is a joke imo. I always hate flying with them. They're slow to load, food is rubbish (no choice whether to pay or not), planes are old and IFE is rubbish (Fawlty Towers re-runs). Their staff are hostile towards customers.

It's about time someone took them on. I feel any loyalty to them is based solely on nostalgia and misplaced patriotism.

While I've only flown with them a few times, I would tend to agree with you. Why not provide a better service, better food, IFE etc, Instead of shedding jobs. The management are a greedy joke.

ballooba

lufties wrote: »

While I've only flown with them a few times, I would tend to agree with you. Why not provide a better service, better food, IFE etc, Instead of shedding jobs. The management are a greedy joke.

They seem to be beholden to unions for one thing. Their main competitor is also unionised as far as I know, but doesn't seem to be so heavily influenced. Australia is a high cost economy which has its challenges. The Aussies are getting fleeced for air fares which makes it an attractive market for overseas airlines with lower cost bases.

lufties

ballooba wrote: »

They seem to be beholden to unions for one thing. Their main competitor is also unionised as far as I know, but doesn't seem to be so heavily influenced. Australia is a high cost economy which has its challenges. The Aussies are getting fleeced for air fares which makes it an attractive market for overseas airlines with lower cost bases.

In all honesty unions are important, but they are toothless tigers these days. They didn't seem to bother Joyce when he grounded the whole airline a while back, which was a cynical and nasty move. I don't know how these guys can sleep at night. They continue to pump millions into jetstar hk and japan, neither of which have got off the ground yet.

billie1b

ballooba wrote: »

Qantas is a joke imo. I always hate flying with them. They're slow to load, food is rubbish (no choice whether to pay or not), planes are old and IFE is rubbish (Fawlty Towers re-runs). Their staff are hostile towards customers.

It's about time someone took them on. I feel any loyalty to them is based solely on nostalgia and misplaced patriotism.

Reminds me of Aer Lingus

Mister R

billie1b wrote: »

Reminds me of Aer Lingus

I haven't met a single hostile EI staff member in the last number of years and those for purchase salads they were doing on the European routes were actually pretty nice when I had them, but don't let facts get in the way of bashing them.

As for Qantas is this Emirates co-op thing working out in Dubai?

billie1b

Mister R wrote: »

I haven't met a single hostile EI staff member in the last number of years and those for purchase salads they were doing on the European routes were actually pretty nice when I had them, but don't let facts get in the way of bashing them.

As for Qantas is this Emirates co-op thing working out in Dubai?

I'm not bashing anybody dude, just because you found the food good and staff non-hostile doesn't mean every customer feels the same way but dont let your opinion get in the way of facts.

Both carriers haven't noticed any difference in pax numbers since they partnered together and with the announcement of 1000 job loses and Qantas being dubbed as 'the worlds junk airline' it doesnt look like its going too well.

basill

Most airlines retain "junk" status. Few if any ever make investment grade for rating purposes.

lufties

basill wrote: »

Most airlines retain "junk" status. Few if any ever make investment grade for rating purposes.

Apart from Lufthansa and Southwest.

pclancy

I've flown nearly 50,000 miles with Qantas this year so far so believe me I know them well But I use them for work because of lounge access and earning miles, when I last came home to Ireland I chose Korean Air due to their excellent legroom in economy and newer aircraft. Plus I wanted to avoid Dubai and Emirates seating is too tight....

Certainly compared to other carriers the Qantas fleet is starting to feel old, I never seem to make it onto any of the refurbished A330s or 747s so tend to be on the older birds that make up the mainstay of the long-haul fleet, so you get used to older aircraft with quite poor IFE and older style seating.

The food I generally find good, even in economy, but their business class service is certainly falling behind Air NZ or Emirates...

Crew, I always find excellent but a different "stock" to other airlines, often being older but more down to earth crew that have been flying for years and probably dont come across quite as caring as some other airlines, especially the Asian carriers that are all about politeness and discrete service. I was chatting to the business class FA on the upper deck of a 747 a few weeks ago and she had a lot to say about the middle management being bloated and the fact that many crew dont want o move off the 747 is causing delays with rolling out newer aircraft and have to work under the newer rosters...the power of the union still holds firm!

Its clear they are suffering from the same fate as many other legacy national carriers and they havent responded quickly enough to Virgin/Singapore/Air NZs efforts to do battle on the local routes down here, the good old days of Qantas being the only way to Oz are well over and its clear that many expats from the UK and Ireland are going with Etihad or Singapore airlines well ahead of Qantas. They need to respond and improve their offering and pricing before they get driven out of existence...Joyce has been doing the best with what he has but I think some serious changes need to be made and sadly trimming front line jobs and back office efficiency is the norm in these cases....

Mister R

For an airline cutting jobs how much were they paying Miranda Kerr to model that hideous new uniform.

lufties

Mister R wrote: »

For an airline cutting jobs how much were they paying Miranda Kerr to model that hideous new uniform.

never understood the mass appeal of Miranda Kerr, a bit like not understanding the hysteria around kate moss.

Anyway, yes the uniform is hideous, how could they get it so wrong, deluded

Mister R

It looks terrible on a model god knows how awful it'll look on the actual crew. It looks very lo-co cheap too, like the fabric choices.