Here is something to read - or maybe not - when you are next on Qantas. Matthew Benns, an Australian investigative journalist, has written a book allegedly exposing everything that the airline did not want exposed.According to the promotional material: "This book is the account of the Qantas story that every airline passenger needs to read: the full and frank history of Australia's national airline. It takes you into the boardroom, where golden parachutes are signed off, and onto the hangar floor, where engineers battle accounting cuts to keep planes flying safely. It takes you back to the foundation of the airline to disprove the line that Qantas never crashes.
"This is the warts and all history the Qantas PR department does not want you to read ... but you can bet they'll be reading it too!"
For the record, Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton has been quoted by several newspapers denying many of Benns' allegations. And as for the title, well, I did not know Qantas had died!
on October 29, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply
Qantas is a mess that has been deteriorating for years.......execs departing with handfull of cash....staff moral at an all time low...engineers at loggerheads with their employer and a fleet of tired and delapidated aircraft..........watch what happens to the reputation very very soon.....dont fly on this dangerous mess
on October 29, 2009 7:01 PM | Reply
But we've been hearing that for years too haven't we? The carrier appears to be trying to do something about it with new aircraft and attemps to improve MRO standards. Will it really collapse? I doubt it.
on November 9, 2009 9:59 AM | Reply
Siva. What Ben is saying is preety much on the mark. Working within Qantas i hear a lot of opinions and criticisms around the traps, (that i dont want to elaborate on right now) and NONE of them are in favour of,
a) our faultless flight record staying intact for very much longer
b) moral picking up, as it is NON-EXISTANT in MOST departments. (This is straight out of the mouths of leading hands and supervisors as well!
The employees are just fed up with having to fight for every cent, (it took us near 2 years to get our normal 3% CPI pay rise) while we sat back and watched Dixon plunder the piggy bank, and left departments with empty promises of more funds to sustain them.
More-so. The staff cutbacks have put pressure on everyone left, and is therefore impacting on time constraints and the like, which we all know is not a good thing when fixing / servicing planes.
i could go on about how department heads have absolutely no idea on how to run things, because half of them havent come up through the ranks, but come down (rarely at that) to say to supervisors and leading hands.... "cut back here and there".... but have no idea of the impact or consequences of such implications or actions.
I can only honestly say that there is currently NO-One (the real workers that is)that is happy at Qantas right now, from the ground crew to catering staff, warehouse workers, engineers, through to flight crews AND pilots themselves. Remember i have heard this first hand my friend.
So in the near future when Qantas will, in some opinions, no longer be around, or taken over, again, remember these words, as once again GREED and SHAREHOLDERS prove the undoing of another great Aussie icon.
on November 10, 2009 7:49 AM | Reply
It's all about shareholder value.
I've been flying Qantas for ten years as a regular (platinum for a few years - just to put it in context, not to brag!) and the decline has been epic. Geoff Dixon was obsessed with lowering the cost-base of the airline to then attempt that ludicrous private equity buyout (which really would have destroyed Qantas).
The service is mean and patchy at best (3 from 3 with a spectacular delay since June). The planes, with a few exceptions, are being flown into the ground, so to speak, particularly the 767s which have unwatchable video screens.
I avoid flying them internationally because of the terrible delays I hear about from friends and colleagues and just refuse to pay extra for what comes as part of the service on airlines like Emirates, Malaysia, Thai, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic etc etc.
A great pity. I have no sympathy for Qantas shareholders, they will shortly reap what their beloved CEO Dixon has sown. And they'll deserve it.
on November 16, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply
Qantas has had no crashes eh?
I was a passenger on the B747 that "arrived" on the golf course in Bangkok. If that wasn't a crash, I don't know what was!! $160 million dollars to repair!! Qantas classed that as "an incident" !!!
The subsequent report on crew actions during this event should be required reading for every airline crew members, as what NOT TO DO in-flight and in an emergency.
That everyone on board wasn't killed was testamount to Boeings build quality - and NOTHING else !!
on November 20, 2009 5:08 AM | Reply
Yes, as an ex QANTAS employee of many years I too continue to hear from current staff at all levels in many areas of the disgraceful ways staff and customers are being treated. Morale has not improved. And the last straw of inept and unaccountable management was the news that an A380 and a 747 each week do an empty and unnecessary repositioning flight between Sydney and Melbourne at a cost of many thousands of dollars. This is an waste of funds simply solved by a review of scheduling and at a time when - as other staff know - every cent is argued for in most areas of the airline. It is also fairly typical of some of the appalling decisions being made by some areas of QANTAS. It is well past the time that the new CEO stood up and was counted in the ranks of responsible airline chiefs, before it is really too late.
on November 29, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply
I'm with the other QF employee on this & back up all his/her comments. I've been with the airline for 10 yrs, and in this relatively short time in aviation terms, have witnessed the gradual decline in service, support to staff, both on the ground & in systems, more red tape than the public service, more duck shoving than the average local council planning department, and a massive slide in customer & staff loyalty alike.
QF is no different to any other big impersonal uncaring corporate, and no amount of trying to make the staff deliver more of a feel good service to customers is going to make a difference when the structure is decayed and unable to provide adequate support to staff in the delivery of their jobs.
QF became a 'no can do' airline after James Strong stood down as CEO. Bransons VirginBlue on the other hand, budget though it is, still manages to provide far superior customer service with very much a 'can do' attitude, and impressively backed up by streamlined efficient systems, and genuinely happy staff . . . it comes from the top, it always has & always will. So what hope has QF got?!
on December 30, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply
I used to get to international airports en route back to Australia and look fondly at the Qantas planes. Not any more. I now feel it symbolises greed and I never ever fly Qantas any more. I am also deeply concerned about their maintenance cutbacks. The past and present CEOs have a lot to answer for.
on February 12, 2010 2:10 AM | Reply
20 years ago I was proud to work for Qantas. I learnt the very best of the airline industry with Qantas at the sharp end at London Heathrow. Then, the CEO was an engineer - that' why it was the safest airline to fly, that's why standards were high, safety came before commercial pressures.
I don't know what the story is now - I watch it all from afar, living in Nairobi - but I am sad to see this once admired airline so obviously going downhill.
Will be interesting to read the book and find out why.
on July 22, 2010 9:44 AM | Reply
Hello, im sick of hearing all this crap. I am a currently employed as a qantas engineer and I am tired of people bringing us down, internally and externally. If your a qantas employee and you don't like the company, leave and do us all a favour.
We work hard, and most of us enjoy this line of work. Yes there are management problems, but they exist in every company. The main problem as I see it is that engineering managers rotate through sections too quickly and therefore try to have a big impact in a short amount of time. This results in excessive cost cutting and projects with no follow-through. This is a known problem and I hope that a change will be implemented soon.
The media love's a qantas scandal and will often report minor qantas issues over much bigger blunders on other carriers. I believe all mistakes should be published and there should be no secrets. But this should apply to all carriers, to put everything in perspective. I would and will continue to fly qantas regardless of whether i work there or not. It is a safe airline and will continue to be in my opinion one of the best in the world.