Is Alan Joyce doing a good job?

[jabirujoe]

How about you compete with wages in Bangladesh and china...??

 

[Moody]

There is an interesting letter from a Qantas pilot in today's AFR. I can't find a link to it on their website, but I'm sure you are all subscribers anyway.


It is fairly short so if pushed I will just type it in when I have 5 minutes .... and here it is :-

Qantas not unions' fault

I want to respond to Roger Wolfe blaming unions for the problems at Qantas ["Qantas needs to focus on fundamentals", AFR Letters, March 6].
I was, until September 2013, the president of the Australian and International Pilots' Association, which represents 2500 Qantas and Jetstar pilots.
In a meeting in February 2011, I offered Alan Joyce a two-year pay freeze and a commitment to rewrite our certified agreements.
This was rejected out of hand. It is an ideological war and Mr Joyce needed the pilots to be able to lock the staff out in 2011 at a cost of over $200M. There is nothing wrong with industrial relations in Australia but there is a lot wrong with management.

Barry Jackson, Sydney, NSW

 

[Favfern]

I haven't had time to read the many contributions to this thread, but assume that some members want to lynch Alan Joyce, some want to beatify him, and some couldn't give a toss! I am 68 years old and was a Qantas International Flight Steward from 1967 to 1969. We flew on B 707's, one or two Electras, and even a venerable DC4 to Norfolk. International air travel was strictly controlled by IATA, and real competition was unheard of. IATA could decree that no item of food served in First Class could be given to a pleb in Economy, and should it be proven that I had given a First Class apple to someone "beyond the curtain", my job was in jeopardy. Any airline who couldn't make some sort of profit under such a regime was a pretty poor airline --- and of course, if it didn't make a profit the Government picked up the tab because they owned the whole shooting match!

The stewards and hosties of the Sixties were a very different breed to the primped and preened versions we have to put up with today. To land a job with Qantas as a steward back then was like winning the lottery! I gave up a promising career as a teacher to join Qantas, and have never regretted the choice. I learned more in two weeks as a QF steward than I learned in two years as a teacher, and earned more money, into the bargain.

Qantas and the Pacesetter fares of the late Sixties introduced a whole generation of baby boomers to international travel, and unfortunately there are too many of that generation (my generation) who wallow in that nostalgia and think that Qantas is still Australia's national airline! It is not. It is just a business, once successful when protected by unfair rules and Government money.

But times have changed. Qantas in 1969 is not Qantas in 2014! Once upon a time, when you walked up the stairs of a Qantas 707 at Heathrow after backpacking round Europe, you could almost smell the gum leaves at the top of the stairs (no aero-bridges back then). Today, the Flying Kangaroo is just another airline, the service staff could be from ANY other airline in the Western world, and as much as the Labour Party and the unions would like to play our emotional chords and relive days that are long gone, the public are no longer fooled. I still travel QF when I can (yes, a nostalgic old fool), but Aussies without my long standing connection to this airline have already voted with their feet. If I owned shares in Qantas, I would get out fast. This government is not one to try to re-float a sinking ship, and the days of handouts to lost industrial causes is over.

Sadly, Alan Joyce makes a better mathematician than he does a people manager. Maybe he should go to somewhere like Harvard and solve equations. However, since he is an Irishman, and I had an Irish grandfather, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, blood is thicker than water!

 

[JohnK]

....Frequent flyer program is also non competive....

In whose eyes?

I have managed to accumulate ~1.2 million QFF points in ~5 years. I could not have done that in any other FF program on this earth as easily. Now if only I could find the time to travel the world ~8 times playing golf in as many different countries as possible.

 

[amaroo]

There is an interesting letter from a Qantas pilot in today's AFR. I can't find a link to it on their website, but I'm sure you are all subscribers anyway.


It is fairly short so if pushed I will just type it in when I have 5 minutes .... and here it is :-

Qantas not unions' fault

I want to respond to Roger Wolfe blaming unions for the problems at Qantas ["Qantas needs to focus on fundamentals", AFR Letters, March 6].
I was, until September 2013, the president of the Australian and International Pilots' Association, which represents 2500 Qantas and Jetstar pilots.
In a meeting in February 2011, I offered Alan Joyce a two-year pay freeze and a commitment to rewrite our certified agreements.
This was rejected out of hand. It is an ideological war and Mr Joyce needed the pilots to be able to lock the staff out in 2011 at a cost of over $200M. There is nothing wrong with industrial relations in Australia but there is a lot wrong with management.

Barry Jackson, Sydney, NSW

Barry - 50 meetings over 6 months...and you still can't do a deal! Barry Jackson-AIPA-Interview-Washington Post 22-11-11 - YouTube

No wonder he is no longer the President!

 

[woodborer]

We have so many geniuses here, we should start our own airline

We should run a poll on how long AFF airlines would last until it went broke. I'd give it a week!

 

[Moody]

Barry - 50 meetings over 6 months...and you still can't do a deal! Barry Jackson-AIPA-Interview-Washington Post 22-11-11 - YouTube

No wonder he is no longer the President!

Thanks for the link. Barry seemed quite reasonable to me - maybe the problem was on the other side of the 50+ meetings???

 

[amaroo]

We should run a poll on how long AFF airlines would last until it went broke. I'd give it a week!

I agree. But you never know - someone might Shine Shine (1996) - Flight of the Bumblebee - YouTube

 

[Robbi]

5 years is a long time but airlines are hard business to run and takes a long time to turnaround. Very few airlines are profitable in the long run.

Who said that the easiest way to be a millionaire is to start off as a billionaire and buy an airline?

Warren Buffett?

 

[Robbi]

For years and years the un-level playing field has always been in Qantas' favour why is it an issue now........??

Because they did not capitalise on it when the going was good and they are reaping their just rewards now and it hurts.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Ultimately it is all reflected in the share price how you transition from a protected government airline to a fully fledged private operator.

the question should be is the board fully equipped to deal with the issues the airline faces?

AJ reports to the board.