Cont ra i S I
with Geoffrey Thomas
Time to hit the reset button The words of a sobbing Ansett flight attendant on Melbourne radio are coming back, this time to haunt Qantas staff and management.
Qllntas, with over 20 per cent preferring low cost alternatives. And that number is increasing every day. For engineers, offshore main tenance 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 Qllntas and thus putting engi neeringjobs at risk - perma nently! To the TWU, why have you done a favourable and flexible deal with Virgin Blue, but want to hobble Qllntas? But for Qllntas management, the questions are most dam ming. Why are you last to market with innovations that would attract passengers? A Marc Newson designed interior for the A380 and being first to have in-seat IFE screens in premium economy simply isn't good enough. Qllntas management has found a raft of reasons to be last to market with innova tions, from seat back videos to premium economy, still ignores the 777, the mainstay of its . profitable rivals Cathay Pacific,
Singapore Airlines and Emir ates, and has a long history in being reactionary and conserva tive in new route development. And the Australian govern ment must ensure that Qllntas is not disadvantaged as it further liberalises aviation, and it needs to consider that capital decisions such as aircraft pur chases are 20 year propositions. But if little Air New Zealand can reinvent travel and inspire its staff to walk on water, why can't Qllntas? Contrails doesn't know whe're this industrial impasse started, but ENOUGH! Qllntas management and the unions need to call timeout, roll over all EBAs for 12 months, and sit down and reinvent Qlln tas 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 Austral ian domestic operation with greenfields contracts. And that would signal the end of Qllntas 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 pilots' strike of 1989 ringing
out from media doorstops. Those analogies from unions are interesting because the un ions comprehensively lost both of those disputes. The situation at Qllntas is almost as toxic as the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. There seems to be little if any common ground. And this ~gainst a backdrop of'uncert~ii1ly over Qllntas International"operations, which Centre of Asia Aviation execu tive chairman Peter Harbison has warned is vulnerable. "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 cave into the un ion 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." This year's looming 10th an niversary of the Ansett collapse should provide a salutary warn ing to all. •
"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. Is Qllntas headed the way of Ansett? There is absolutely no guarantee that Qllntas will reach its 100th year, and that would be a tragedy for all Australians. And everyone - government, unions and management, and of course the travelling public who in greate'r numbers steadfastly refuse to pay the fares required to keep a legacy airline flying would wear the blame. When he took over as CEO Alan Joyce promised staff! management relations would be different from the adversarial Dixon era. NO ABSOLUTE GUARANTEES Ansett is areminder that no airline is invulnerable, (Paul Sadler) They certainly are. But not in the positive way he was allud ing to.lt's worse - much worse, than the Dixon era, something . bj I ' ; t many thought was simply nor' " possible. The message to all the Qlln tas unions is simple: Nobody in the country has job security, so why should you? The message to~ntas inter national pilots is simple: Only 17.5 per cent of inter national travellers want to fly or are prepared to pay to fly
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MAY 2011 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION