National carrier plans next air strike at pilots

[Yada Yada]

National carrier plans next air strike at pilots
Rod Myer
September 7, 2006

QANTAS will abandon all Qantas brand services to Townsville from Sydney and replace them with Jetstar, the latest in a long line of substitutions in which Qantas has dropped out of several holiday destinations in Queensland and elsewhere in favour of its discount subsidiary.

The economics are simple in Qantas' view: Jetstar saves it about 40 per cent in costs. So the more routes it can take over without jeopardising the lucrative Qantas inter-capital business-class traffic, the better.

But Jetstar has achieved the easy savings in the domestic market and Qantas is still faced with pruning $1 billion from expenses this year, only $750 million of which it claims to have identified.

So now it is focusing on a tougher nut — pilot salaries. Pilots are the traditional kings of the transport industry, with pay and conditions the envy of many. But in the light of such events as the collapse of much of the US airline sector, and the rise of discount flyers, pilots have come down to earth somewhat.

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AIPA spokesman Peter Somerville said the union had offered a comprehensive package that would apply to domestic and international pilots. It consisted of 10 per cent pay rises over three years, career flexibility for pilots to move between Jetstar and Qantas, a 15 per cent cut in pilot numbers and flexible rosters that would have saved Qantas 6 per cent a year.

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The comment about offering "career flexibility for pilots to move between Jetstar and Qantas" is interesting. It seems clear that QF is intent upon standardising wage rates between the two operations, which makes a lot of sense.

 

[NM]

The comment about offering "career flexibility for pilots to move between Jetstar and Qantas" is interesting. It seems clear that QF is intent upon standardising wage rates between the two operations, which makes a lot of sense.

but that comment was not made by Qantas. It was attributed to Peter Somerville, the spokesperson for APIA (Australian and International Pilots Association), which is effectively the pilot's union. The flexibility to move between the two airlines was part of a proposal put to Qantas by AIPA. Of course the AIPA's goal was to have JQ International flight crew work under the current QF conditions. I suspect there will be an impasse when QF was it the other way around :-| .