What happens on the LAST flight?

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soorox

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I was wondering, for those in the industry (especially ground crew), what happens on an airlines last flight to a destination? For example, KE stopped MEL services in march last year, I know for a fact that their city office was closed and the GM moved to another destination, but what specifically happens at the airport, and what about the crews that operate the last inbound service? Do they just fly back as pax on the outbound? And do the people who worked as ground staff for KE (like check-in staff) became redundant as it seemed KE hired their own staff. Is it simply a matter of picking everything up and leave?

On a side note, Hopefully KE does return back to MEL though! :D
 
I'd imagine a lot of staff are contracted out, so the company that actually hires them can keep them in their roles, but for a different airline/employer.
 
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Very few airline ground staff at an out port will work for the airline in question. The airline might hire some managers, but the rest of the ground ops are generally contracted out, either to another airline or a ground services company (eg, Danta, SATS).
 
I couldn't imagine it would be too much different than a company which is closing down a regional office. Most likely they would offer their own staff redundancy or re-postings. They would terminate contracts with contracting companies (as has been said a lot of ground staff are actually contracted out from local companies), they would terminate any leases on offices, lounges and check-in desks at that airport, as part of that ensuring all signage is removed, and finally they would arrange for either disposal or shipping of company assets still at that location.

If needs be they will put staff onto competitors airlines, much like what they would do when first setting up a route.

Not exactly a small undertaking, but not a huge one either.
 
With the upcoming QF YVR flights, I would expect QF to position any crew/staff needed up from LAX on AS or WS.
 
With the upcoming QF YVR flights, I would expect QF to position any crew/staff needed up from LAX on AS or WS.

For seasonal flights to an airport which there is no intention of anything long term (at least not yet) I would imagine that they would simply get a local contracting company to do everything. At most they may take up some uniforms on the first flight to give to the local company to give the illusion of QF all the way.
 
This picture of QF staff being evacuated after the FRA route was closed shows the typical procedure:

heli.jpg
 
With the upcoming QF YVR flights, I would expect QF to position any crew/staff needed up from LAX on AS or WS.

Was interesting that on a recent PG flight from BKK-HKT, there were three uniformed JQ FAs paxing down to fly JQ28 HKT-SYD in a few hours.
I assume some staff rotation amongst the MEL-BKK and SYD-HKT services given neither are daily services.

But I agree most outstation services are staffed by third-part agents or alliance partners (even if they switch uniforms)
 
Sometimes nothing happens at all. I remember watching the last QF flight from Darwin to Singapore take-off before JQ were given carte blanche on the route and realising that as well as the last SIN flight it was also the end of an era as it also marked the end of QF international flights altogether ex Darwin.

This picture of QF staff being evacuated after the FRA route was closed shows the typical procedure:

View attachment 36155

Was that reboarding after a stopover in SGN? Looks like the rooftop of the Rex Hotel.
 
It seems to vary by the airline, but in Australia most carriers (eg KE) will have a small team + a station manager that are employed directly by the airline. These staff will organise and manage the airport operation for catering, crewing, billing etc. The bulk of the 'manual labour' of checkin, baggage services and ramp will be outsourced to a ground handler (ie Toll Dnata/Menzies or even QF). Sometimes, particularly LCC such as AirAsia will only have 1x station manager employed by the airline (HA does this), with everything else all handled by the ground handler.

In the case of a closure of the station - the ground handling staff would likely be redeployed to work for other airlines (maybe CX for eg if the company held that contract). The airline staff themselves could be redeployed to other airports eg SYD/BNE/PER if they needed staff, but would likely face redundancy.
Crew operating the last flight would need to have their minimum rest period, and would then likely pax back on another airline.
 
Was anyone here on the LAST Ansett flight?

Or the last Compass (mk1 or mk2) flights?
 
No, but I was booked on a Compass flight for Christmas travel. Then they collapsed. :/
 
Was anyone here on the LAST Ansett flight? Or the last Compass (mk1 or mk2) flights?

Not the very last flight but I was on the last Ansett flight that departed out of Cairns (to Brisbane) the evening the whole thing went belly up.
I transferred one of my 'Golden Wing' checked bag tags on to my carry and there its stayed as a regular prompt to remind me that FFP's are not worth one red cent until you have redeemed them and actually received the benefit.
 
No, but I was booked on a Compass flight for Christmas travel. Then they collapsed. :/

Yes I got to BNE and found they'd collapsed and had to buy a ticket from Ansett to go to a wedding in Sydney. Think I've still got the Compass ticket somewhere, waiting for the compensation to arrive...
 
Yes I got to BNE and found they'd collapsed and had to buy a ticket from Ansett to go to a wedding in Sydney. Think I've still got the Compass ticket somewhere, waiting for the compensation to arrive...

Yeah. We always flew Ansett but the husband decided to book Compass. We managed to get on Australian Airlines flights.
 
While it is nice to think the contracted company will keep staff on and re deploy to somewhere else (where?) like the staff at Ansett, Pan Am, Compass, Brindebella, Eastern, Braniff, they are unemployed.

Being honest, redundancy is the most likely outcome.

Matt
 
While it is nice to think the contracted company will keep staff on and re deploy to somewhere else (where?) like the staff at Ansett, Pan Am, Compass, Brindebella, Eastern, Braniff, they are unemployed.

Being honest, redundancy is the most likely outcome.

Matt

The local contractors probably don't have too much to worry about short term with the withdrawal of a single route from an airport, even if it means they will no longer do work for that airline. Most contracting companies would have contracts with loads of other airlines. It'll be the ones who work directly for the airline which will either me moved elsewhere (eg back to the airlines base or to any new routes which the airline is setting up to replace the now lost route) or will be made redundant.
 
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