Qantas Group Reducing services by effectively grounding 18 Aircraft due to Coronavirus

[serfty]

Double SC's were mentioned and received more Prominence here, however there is other important news.

QANTAS AND JETSTAR CUT FLIGHTS IN RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS

Keep up to date with Qantas' latest news and information, media releases, articles, images and more with the Qantas News Room.

www.qantasnewsroom.com.au

Qantas announced the net profit impact of Coronavirus estimated at $100-$150 million for FY20 which was reduced by lower fuel prices.

With that there will be temporary reductions to flights across domestic Australia, Asia and the Tasman in response to the drop in demand with no changes to other parts of the networks.

Summary of the cuts:

- 2% Australian Domestic
- 5% Trans Tasman
- 16% Qantas International Asian Services
- 14% Jetstar services to/from/intra Asia

The group will add to savings by using Leave Balances and Freezing recruitment as well as bringing forward planned maintenance.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

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If linkage does not work, try any news(.)com(.)au websites or just google the info.

 

[codash1099]

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Try here:

Qantas slashes flights to Asia, asks staff to take leave as it braces for $150 million coronavirus hit

Qantas and Jetstar will slash flight capacity to Asia until at least the end of May, with hundreds of staff asked to take leave as demand for Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan routes slumps.

www.abc.net.au

 

[disruptivedolphin]

just google the info.

LOL.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Any idea when the affected timetables and/or flights will be published?

 

[Lynda2475]

Some of the impacted flights are listed on the article on Executive Traveller: Qantas cuts more Hong Kong flights as coronavirus takes hold:

• QF127 (SYD-HKG) – plus its overnight return leg as QF128 – are both axed from March 30 until May 25 2020
• QF29/QF30 flights to and from Hong Kong will be pared back to five days a week from February 26 through until "at least the end of May", generally skipping Mondays and Wednesdays.
• QF97/98 (BNE-HKG) drop from a daily service to running between four and five times each week from February 23 to March 29, then no more than four times per week until late May, and don't return to a daily flight until at least mid-June
• Lengthened the suspension of its Sydney-Shanghai service, which will remain paused until at least May 24 2020, nearly two months longer than the originally-planned return on March 29

Article states that this leave SYD-HKG route with ith only a daily Airbus A330 flight without premium. But i currently have a J award flight on QF117 which is listed as an A380 in early June (which would have PE seats too) so I am wondering if this means A380 will be downgraded to a A330? Im in J so would hopefully still be ok. Ive yet to be able to find non asian routing In J on classic reward so am waiting this out.

 

[serfty]

Any idea when the affected timetables and/or flights will be published?

From the Qantas News Room: [With my comments]

---

• Sydney-Shanghai (the airline’s sole route to mainland China) – will remain suspended
• Sydney-Hong Kong – reduced from 14 return flights per week to 7 [Bye Bye QF127/QF128]
• Brisbane-Hong Kong – reduced from 7 return flights per week to 4 [QF97/QF98 - down to 4 or 5 times per week]
• Melbourne-Hong Kong – reduced from 7 return flights per week to 5 [QF29/QF30 - Monday and Wednesday take the hit]
• Melbourne-Singapore – flights to be operated by Boeing 787s instead of larger Airbus 380s (approx. 250 less seats per flight) [QF35/QF36 - F takes a hit]

 

[SeatBackForward]

From the Qantas News Room: [With my comments]

---

• Sydney-Shanghai (the airline’s sole route to mainland China) – will remain suspended
• Sydney-Hong Kong – reduced from 14 return flights per week to 7 [Bye Bye QF127/QF128]
• Brisbane-Hong Kong – reduced from 7 return flights per week to 4 [QF97/QF98 - down to 4 or 5 times per week]
• Melbourne-Hong Kong – reduced from 7 return flights per week to 5 [QF29/QF30 - Monday and Wednesday take the hit]
• Melbourne-Singapore – flights to be operated by Boeing 787s instead of larger Airbus 380s (approx. 250 less seats per flight) [QF35/QF36 - F takes a hit]

Thanks, @Lynda2475 posted some more specific flight number details from ET in this post

Now waiting on some of the J* details as this is one affecting me directly.

 

[disruptivedolphin]

Now just imagine a big drop in demand on the Japan routes, for regulatory or other reasons...

 

[serfty]

Thanks, @Lynda2475 posted some more specific flight number details from ET in this post

Now waiting on some of the J* details as this is one affecting me directly.

You got me mid edit - First takes a hit SIN/MEL.

I have Four 3K flights booked in a few weeks - I too am watching closely.

 

[Pushka]

I’m waiting for a DPS announcement.

 

[AIRwin]

You got me mid edit - First takes a hit SIN/MEL.

Which leaves only EK as the alternative?

 

[Lynda2475]

Which leaves only EK as the alternative?

or fly via SYD on QF1, A380 has F

 

[Pushka]

Which leaves only EK as the alternative?

Qatar. MH.

 

[Melburnian1]

I couldn't see that anyone has posted this so apologies if it's a duplication.

Here is the Thursday 20 February 2020 media release:

QANTAS AND JETSTAR CUT FLIGHTS IN RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS

Keep up to date with Qantas' latest news and information, media releases, articles, images and more with the Qantas News Room.

www.qantasnewsroom.com.au

While as in many organisations, thousands of staff would have substantial unused recreation leave (holiday) entitlements, forcing staff to take leave can only be a strategy for a relatively short time. Some staff may be understanding and flexible but for others it could wreck planned future holidays (although it's preferable to losing one's job.) It might interrupt workflow if person A suddenly had to take leave, but back in January this wasn't on the cards.

My guess is that Covid-19 may become more serious. Fuel prices have dropped as Joyce says (and perhaps may drop further) but one can easily perceive the adverse effect on QF's finances being more than the quoted '$100 to $150 million' expected by the company for 2019-20.

If there's any surprises, it's that flight frequencies to more QFi destinations in Asia aren't also being cut.

It's also odd that Oz- NZ flights are being cut by five per cent but Oz domestic by just two per cent. Wouldn't the demand profiles for each be similar?

The unanswered question is whether there'll be redundancies or some staff put on shorter weekly hours.

Having 18 (extra?) aircraft idle isn't a huge percentage of the combined QF/JQ fleet but how does the company find maintenance workers to do this 'extra maintenance?' Does that have a cost also?

Neil Hansford of Strategic Airline Solutions commented about how (mainland) Chinese come in groups to Oz.

That's true for the majority but very dated in light of what's occurred tourism research suggests about 28 per cent of communist China's visitors to Australia are the so-called free independent travellers who are here for a holiday (not just visiting friends and relatives):

 

[AIRwin]

The unanswered question is whether there'll be redundancies or some staff put on shorter weekly hours.

Quote from Alan Joyce in the media release:
"To avoid job losses we’ll be using leave balances across our workforce of 30,000 and freezing recruitment to help ride this out."​

 

[Melburnian1]

Quote from Alan Joyce in the media release:
"To avoid job losses we’ll be using leave balances across our workforce of 30,000 and freezing recruitment to help ride this out."

Yes, sorry, I was referring to 'if it goes on longer than just in remaining period of FY 2019-2020.' That's why I commented such a strategy isn't infinite in its application.

Would normal staff turnover at QF be a median of 3 to 5 per cent in most staff categories?

 

[Melburnian1]

The release omits whether travellers can claim a refund if (say for QFi) an imposed date change doesn't suit. This is poor: QF should offer a refund if it can't deliver, even though officially it says 'flight times do not form a part of the contract.'

 

[Himeno]

The unanswered question is whether there'll be redundancies or some staff put on shorter weekly hours.

EBAs tend to have a provision allowing for the requirement to take leave that is deemed "excessive". When a large company needs to cut wages for whatever reason, they can normally find more then enough hours in the overall leave balance to cover it. Also known as 'wageitis'.

Having 18 (extra?) aircraft idle isn't a huge percentage of the combined QF/JQ fleet but how does the company find maintenance workers to do this 'extra maintenance?' Does that have a cost also?

The release doesn't say that they are pulling 18 aircraft from service. It says that the reductions are equal to having pulled 18 aircraft. It just means that each aircraft is doing less flying, it doesn't mean that they will now have 18 extra aircraft sitting at SYD/MEL/BNE.
If you had 50 aircraft each flying 18 hours a day and then cut the schedule so that those 50 aircraft were now only flying 14 hours a day, you've effectively parked 11 aircraft.

 

[disruptivedolphin]

Might not the best thread (there are so many), and sorry if someone has already posted it, but I thought this raised some interesting logistics issues:

Universities scramble for flights for Chinese students should travel ban end

Qantas could deploy special flights to help retrieve stranded Chinese students as the window narrows for them to arrive in time for semester one.

www.smh.com.au

100,000 students, and

The government has suggested to universities that Australia's border and health processes would be stretched by a sudden surge of arrivals and they might need to be processed in batches of 1000.