27th February Big Qantas announcement

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All has been revealed in this morning's press.

Qantas is set to sack up to 3000 staff, sell planes and terminals and cut routes in the biggest shake-up of the Flying Kangaroo's 93-year history.
The airline's boss Alan Joyce is expected to reveal the cuts on Thursday when Qantas announces a record half-year loss of more than $300 million for the six months to December 31.
The Weekend West believes Qantas will cut 10 per cent of its 32,000-strong workforce - more than three times the 1000 job losses flagged in December when the airline warned of an underlying half-year loss of $250-$300 million amid the "toughest market conditions it had ever faced".
Conditions have deteriorated significantly since, prompting Mr Joyce to push for Federal Gov-ernment assistance last week.
Virgin Australia has accused Qantas of trying to get a "free ride" and warned the Government against coming to the airline's aid.
It is understood the staff cuts will be across-the-board and will focus on management and backroom staff. Qantas is expected to reveal it will sell, then rent back its terminals in Melbourne and Brisbane.
Sources in Dubai and Britain said Qantas would cut services to London and lease four of its flagship 490-seat super jumbos and their pilots to Turkish Airlines, claims that were denied by Qantas last night.
Turkish Airlines did not deny the report but said its board was yet to make a decision.
A Qantas spokesman refused to deny 3000 jobs would go, saying tough decisions were ahead.
"Qantas has flagged the need to make tough decisions as part of strengthening our business, which we will outline next Thursday," he said.
"For our customers, this won't change our focus on being one of the world's best airlines."
The airline's staff costs, which are double those of Emirates and Singapore Airlines and 16 per cent higher than Virgin Australia, are a major factor in Qantas losing international market share to low-cost carriers.
Qantas carries just 17 per cent of international traffic into and out of Australia, down from more than 40 per cent in the early 1990s.
Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation chairman Peter Harbison said there would be "lots of bad news" when Qantas released its half-year results.
He said the airline needed to give its staff and Australians a clear vision for the future.
In December, Mr Joyce promised that Qantas would deliver $2 billion in savings over three years and undertake a strategic review of its business.
 
While it would agree this is, in essence, a fundamental of any business, I would argue that being the nation's flag carrier comes with responsibilities. To me, a fair part of that responsibility is servicing a significant portion of the population of the country whose flag you have the privilege of sticking on your aircraft.

I would expect that if the route is loss-making then serious attention be given to turning around. A layman like me would argue that re-timing your only remaining service to be within 10 minutes of its LCC competitor on the same rate is counter-productive and asking for failure.

QF is no more the national flag carrier than CBA is the national bank. It's a private business saddled with restrictive legislation. Parliament needs to remove the handcuffs, purchase it back, support it or watch it sink.....
 
All has been revealed in this morning's press.

Qantas is set to sack up to 3000 staff, sell planes and terminals and cut routes in the biggest shake-up of the Flying Kangaroo's 93-year history.
The airline's boss Alan Joyce is expected to reveal the cuts on Thursday when Qantas announces a record half-year loss of more than $300 million for the six months to December 31.
The Weekend West believes Qantas will cut 10 per cent of its 32,000-strong workforce - more than three times the 1000 job losses flagged in December when the airline warned of an underlying half-year loss of $250-$300 million amid the "toughest market conditions it had ever faced".
Conditions have deteriorated significantly since, prompting Mr Joyce to push for Federal Gov-ernment assistance last week.
Virgin Australia has accused Qantas of trying to get a "free ride" and warned the Government against coming to the airline's aid.
It is understood the staff cuts will be across-the-board and will focus on management and backroom staff. Qantas is expected to reveal it will sell, then rent back its terminals in Melbourne and Brisbane.
Sources in Dubai and Britain said Qantas would cut services to London and lease four of its flagship 490-seat super jumbos and their pilots to Turkish Airlines, claims that were denied by Qantas last night.
Turkish Airlines did not deny the report but said its board was yet to make a decision.
A Qantas spokesman refused to deny 3000 jobs would go, saying tough decisions were ahead.
"Qantas has flagged the need to make tough decisions as part of strengthening our business, which we will outline next Thursday," he said.
"For our customers, this won't change our focus on being one of the world's best airlines."
The airline's staff costs, which are double those of Emirates and Singapore Airlines and 16 per cent higher than Virgin Australia, are a major factor in Qantas losing international market share to low-cost carriers.
Qantas carries just 17 per cent of international traffic into and out of Australia, down from more than 40 per cent in the early 1990s.
Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation chairman Peter Harbison said there would be "lots of bad news" when Qantas released its half-year results.
He said the airline needed to give its staff and Australians a clear vision for the future.
In December, Mr Joyce promised that Qantas would deliver $2 billion in savings over three years and undertake a strategic review of its business.

The TK rumour is interesting. But I'm not sure IST can handle an A380
 
The plans of Mr Joyce & the current board clearly have not been working for many years now... From an "outsider" position, how long will this current management team remain...?

Edit: I don't think that their current problems are all their fault, however I feel the company lacks understanding at a pax level... For instance I used to fly Qantas through to Asia, now its not an option as an ADL pax, but at the same time it's never been easier to jump on SQ out of ADL. I cant be loyal to a product that doesn't exist...
 
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LOL - cartoon in today's Australian.
 

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A question for people who have gone through devaluations before on QF. If they increase the number of points requried, will it be effective from 28 Feb, or do they usually make it sometime in the future. i am trying to work out whether to dump my points this week, but i would be booking flights for the sake of it rather than saving them for something i really want. thanks
 
If they increase the number of points required it won't matter hardly any Int. award flight seats to the likes of USA available anyway.

Just unloaded a stash of mine on EK (out of HKG), its a brought forward trip to Europe.
 
The airline's staff costs, which are double those of Emirates and Singapore Airlines and 16 per cent higher than Virgin Australia, are a major factor in Qantas losing international market share to low-cost carriers.

From reading everyones posts about other carriers it would seem the "product" is better elsewhere and that is contributing to why market share is being lost.
Also fare pricing is a factor too, among other things.
 
A question for people who have gone through devaluations before on QF. If they increase the number of points requried, will it be effective from 28 Feb, or do they usually make it sometime in the future. i am trying to work out whether to dump my points this week, but i would be booking flights for the sake of it rather than saving them for something i really want. thanks

I can't see any reason why there would be a points devaluation. QF already has one of the highest charges for redemptions, and the fuel surcharge makes it even more expensive... they can just increase the 'fees and charges' if they want to make more money.

under the terms and conditions of the frequent flyer program, I would be expecting at least three months notice of any devaluation.
 
Thanks Ashleyn, this has a ring of truth about it. Major changes to the operation of QFF would be taken very poorly here, as QF have been pushing the points benefits hard in their recent advertising.
 
Probably wont make much difference to us.I had already jumped ship to AA.Opened my account there in 2002 and it became my primary scheme in 2006.
With the cuts over recent years we now more often leave and return to Australia on non QF flights.Of 6 flights to or from Australia this year only 1 is on QF and that is because it is a JASA and 1 of the only 4 segments on QF so that mrsdrron keeps her WP.
Other flights are TG,SQ,MH,JAL and FJ.
 
From reading everyones posts about other carriers it would seem the "product" is better elsewhere and that is contributing to why market share is being lost.
Also fare pricing is a factor too, among other things.

Can I also suggest that QF needs or more aggressively market themselves outside of Australia. I was in Sydney last week and saw SQ advertising at bus stops all over the city. In 5 years of living in Singapore the only QF advertising I have seen was tacked onto the end of a commercial promoting Australia (which IMHO, promoting Australia here gives as much a boost to SQ as it does to QF). It seems to me (although I admit I am completely uninformed) that QF does a lot of their foreign marketing via US television vehicles such as Oprah and now Modern Family, which I assume are good for the US market but not so much elsewhere.

Also there is a lack of QFF engagement - there are credit cards here that will accrue to airlines such as Delta, BA and Eva air, who each only have 1-3 services a day (and don't have a subsidiary airline based here to earn/burn on) yet there are no CCs that allow QF earning. Surely it wouldn't cost that much to have a presence, and might even help with cross promotion on QF and 3K.
 
Time to book your flights to use up those points in the next 4 days I would be thinking.
 
QF is no more the national flag carrier than CBA is the national bank. It's a private business saddled with restrictive legislation. Parliament needs to remove the handcuffs, purchase it back, support it or watch it sink.....

Exactly. How many other countries actually have conditions that favour foreign companies (ie Virgin) over the domestic ones? Not many I'd assume.
 
Can I also suggest that QF needs or more aggressively market themselves outside of Australia. I was in Sydney last week and saw SQ advertising at bus stops all over the city. In 5 years of living in Singapore the only QF advertising I have seen was tacked onto the end of a commercial promoting Australia (which IMHO, promoting Australia here gives as much a boost to SQ as it does to QF). It seems to me (although I admit I am completely uninformed) that QF does a lot of their foreign marketing via US television vehicles such as Oprah and now Modern Family, which I assume are good for the US market but not so much elsewhere.

hahahaha.

Advertise where?

In china? oh wait - Qantas seems to be the only airline in the world that is not allowed to sell tickets on-line in china. You have to go to their office for credit card verification. (If you thought the Qantas sale act was bad for business... imagine having those credit card restrictions in china! That apply to you, and you only.)

So - advertise in Thailand? Oh wait... Qantas seems to be the only airline in the world that is not allowed to sell tickets on-line in Thailand. So no good buying a cheap hop from HKT to BKK and then connecting to Australia from there... because you can't ticket! Jetstar can ticket on-line in Thailand... but Qantas is not allowed.

Let's try the Philippines? noooo. soorry. Can't book from there either unless you turn up at head office within two days.
 
So the premium flagship is trying to cut costs, and the LCC is trying to expand routes and build new bases... shouldn't it be the other way around?
 
Can I also suggest that QF needs or more aggressively market themselves outside of Australia.
Also there is a lack of QFF engagement - there are credit cards here that will accrue to airlines such as Delta, BA and Eva air, who each only have 1-3 services a day (and don't have a subsidiary airline based here to earn/burn on) yet there are no CCs that allow QF earning. Surely it wouldn't cost that much to have a presence, and might even help with cross promotion on QF and 3K.
I couldn't agree more. There are all sorts of QFF promotions only open to Oz residents, and a heap of ways of earning points also only open to locals. We have one Visa available, through ANZ. It is overall not a bad card, but has some unsatisfactory aspects.
 
The plans of Mr Joyce & the current board clearly have not been working for many years now... From an "outsider" position, how long will this current management team remain...?

They should be gone. If Joyce sacks 3000 or more, he should be the first to go. The workers who will be cut don't make the decisions. The CEO, board and the other management are the ones who have made the calls (a lot of them have been ordinary) so they should go. They are the first to take credit when something is a success but never put thier hand up and say that they made a mistake.

Stupid decisions including wasting money in Asia for no return, Jetstar and all its subsidaries (particularly HKG which won't get off the ground), the 65% market share strategy.........do I need to go on?

Joyce and the board should all go straight away - which won't happen. Some of the other managers need to go too - Hickey should go because this great golden egg called Emirates was meant to fix so many problems and yet it clearly hasn't. The only one I would keep is Strambi - he actually knows his stuff
 
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