Qantas considers moving SYD HQ interstate / Heavy maintenance away from BNE

[I love to travel]

Fairfax media have quite a scathing article about it online now.

 

[nathrek]

Link?

 

[kpc]

Link?

Qantas seeks 'corporate welfare' with its HQ auction, Birmingham says

Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has blasted Qantas' move to start a bidding war between state governments over the location of its headquarters as a blatant appeal for taxpayer dollars.

www.smh.com.au

 

[jakeseven7]

Qantas seeks 'corporate welfare' with its HQ auction, Birmingham says

Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has blasted Qantas' move to start a bidding war between state governments over the location of its headquarters as a blatant appeal for taxpayer dollars.

www.smh.com.au

Lol where was he everytime the QLD government shovelled out tens of millions to Virgin Mark 1? Oh and hundreds of millions for a Bain/VA2.

 

[jb747]

The end result of this, if it goes to plan, is that NSW will pay lots of money, and QF won’t move an inch.

 

[flyer89]

The end result of this, if it goes to plan, is that NSW will pay lots of money, and QF won’t move an inch.

And you don't recon there will be a bail out. We must always remember how smart the Irish are....

 

[Ekka]

Move to LRE?

Not a bad idea, AIRwin, but I'm not sure AJ knows where it is.

 

[RAM]

I have never understood how governments actually make money by doing this.

Australia as a whole loses whilst Boards & senior execs like the $24m man profit at the community's expense.

Just like with Melb & Syd bidding against each other for musicals etc.

Reality:

• all major productions spend weeks in Melb & Sydney.
• there is not enough theatre capacity in Melb or Sydney to have all major productions running in either city at the same time nor hotel rooms for inter-state attendees if they were all running in the one city.
• major productions, themselves, make more money by NOT having all in one city

Yet the consultants appear to have convinced the bureaucrats & politicians (political donations perhaps?) that Victoria & NSW should spend between $55 to $120m a year out-bidding each other.

All it achieves are more Ferraris & offshore bank accounts - and a net negative benefit (political spin version) for the community.

You and I would call it a cost to the community to benefit the 9 promoters running the scene within Australia.

Maintenance Facility

Given that the B747-400s have gone for good and the A380s possibly at least 3 years or gone for good = substantial capacity reduction for at least a few years on heavy maintenance.

As someone already posted - all of this is a very good way to MAKE people resign and thus avoid paying them a redundancy at 2 weeks per year of service. After all, the costs faced by a family with school age children relocating from Brisbane to Syd/Melb would be astronomical either for rental or purchase. The relativity for median housing prices as at June 30th:

• Brisbane $ 566,000
• Melbourne $ 882,000
• Sydney $1,166,000

 

[samh004]

I realise this is all a ploy to get better deals from the government/punish QLD for keeping their borders closed, but it seems to me the most logical scenario is to work a deal out with NSW/Western Sydney airport to eventually move the complete operation there. Everything. That is assuming of course that the airport does not end up with a curfew and that there's a plan to build new state of the art terminals, two runways and a dedicated transport option (train) to the city. It will then have everything they need to fly to all places and for passengers to easily get there.

I see absolutely no point in considering Melbourne Tullamarine, considering its two runways intersect. Will Avalon get a second runway?

I can't see them ever heading back towards their birthplace and setting up shop in Brisbane, despite the fact that there's no curfew and two very good runways now.

So it really just comes down to Western Sydney and what the future holds for that airport. It could be perfect for Sydney and NSW, or it could be hampered by red tape.

 

[dajop]

I see absolutely no point in considering Melbourne Tullamarine, considering its two runways intersect. Will Avalon get a second runway?

I don't think MEL is realistic, but why should a two runway airport matter, for corporate headquarters? In any event planning on the third runway at MEL is well underway, although where that stands in the post-COVID world, who knows. I suspect probably will be pushed by several (5?) years.

Virtual Visitor Centre | Melbourne Airport | Community Analytics

www.melbourneairport.com.au

 

[samh004]

I don't think MEL is realistic, but why should a two runway airport matter, for corporate headquarters? In any event planning on the third runway at MEL is well underway, although where that stands in the post-COVID world, who knows. I suspect probably will be pushed by several (5?) years.

Virtual Visitor Centre | Melbourne Airport | Community Analytics

www.melbourneairport.com.au

Didn't realise they were finally going to get with the times

I guess a runway isn't important to operations, but to have everything in the same spot makes some sense?

 

[dajop]

I guess a runway isn't important to operations, but to have everything in the same spot makes some sense?

I guess it depends on the risk of having everything in the same spot. But generally it would make sense I assume.

 

[RAM]

Qantas sub-leasing Mascot HQ office space

Struggling airline Qantas are set to sub-lease half of its Mascot HQ in an attempt to continue to cut costs. They're trying to get $9 million for the two standalone Bourke Road spaces, offered at...

www.propertyobserver.com.au

Qantas will be retaining the head lease for another 12 years, from the building owners Cromwell Property Group.

The two buildings, part of four which house Qantas staff, have just undergone a full fitout.

One building has 14,690 sqm of office space across six levels, which if leased separately at $450 per sqm would equate to $6.61 million.

There's just over 5,000 sqm of space in the other two level building next door, will be leased in one line. That would be $2.26 million per annum.

Colliers have also listed for sub-lease 2,000 sqm of space in Melbourne's 333 Collins Street, as well as 1,500 sqm at the Qantas Premium Contact Centre in Hobart.

This article is worth reading through as it demonstrates several broader issues:

• Don't count your chickens until they're hatched (Q landlord believing what Q promised in exchange for extremely healthy lease incentives)
• A purpose renovated building (actually 2) is now surplus to Q's short, medium & long term requirements in NSW
• Q's internal plans DO NOT match what they've said publicly so far

With the last point - the sub-leasing of 2 of their 7 long term leased buildings for potentially the full remaining (12 yr) term suggests there are between 1,200 & 1,800 Mascot based 'office dwelling' staff to get bad news this year. Represents 30% of total floorspace BUT closer to 45% of 'pleb' space.

Given that Q has 12 years remaining on its Mascot leases - it would have to sub-let the rest of the space at a much lower rate than they're paying for it. So I hope (forlornly) that at least one bureaucrat in each State runs the full numbers before the pollies rush in to shower Q with taxpayers' money.

 

[Flying Fox]

A ploy by Joyce to get NSW government to give tax concessions etc to keep Qf headquarters in Mascot!

I agree. Well played AJ; well played!

 

[Flying Fox]

Qantas to lease 20,000sqm at head office as airline deals with coronavirus fallout - realestate.com.au

The national carrier is looking for tenants to occupy half of its Sydney headquarters amid talks it could bid farewell to the city altogether.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au

Qantas is looking to sublease two of its four buildings at Mascot to other businesses, as well as office space in Melbourne and Hobart. Apparently they have a lease on their HQ until 2030.

Maybe VB2 could move in and share office space, photocopiers, stationery etc

 

[jakeseven7]

Maybe VB2 could move in and share office space, photocopiers, stationery etc

They've already ditched their sprawling party pad in Bowen Hills (known to staff as the 'Virgin Village') to just take up a couple of floors of an office block in the city

 

[Seat0B]

With the last point - the sub-leasing of 2 of their 7 long term leased buildings for potentially the full remaining (12 yr) term suggests there are between 1,200 & 1,800 Mascot based 'office dwelling' staff to get bad news this year. Represents 30% of total floorspace BUT closer to 45% of 'pleb' space.

Or could it be that they will be working from home more and so need a smaller office footprint?

 

[RAM]

Or could it be that they will be working from home more and so need a smaller office footprint?

From what I've heard about AJ - more that he does not trust staff to work as 'diligently' when they're not being observed....

Add in the potential consolidation of JQ's operations there and the numbers look reduced. Interestingly enough the Q head of property had an interview published a few days earlier where he alluded to the 'issues' with Q's 2,000,000 sqm spread over 100 locations globally. Given that the Mascot HQ is 47,000 sqm - that leaves a lot of other property leases (non-office mainly) around the world that is costing money without generating any revenue. He goes on to say that overseas Q is not important & has zero bargaining power.

Interesting datapoint was that nearly 90% of property leased is on-airport locations which typically have a much higher lease cost per sqm than office space. It would be interesting to find out how much of that space is devoted to lounges.

 

[flydoc]

Screenshot, as Paywalled article , but you get the gist.
Fanciful doesn’t even begin to describe it - although people probably once said that about space travel...

 

[jakeseven7]

Screenshot, as Paywalled article , but you get the gist.
Fanciful doesn’t even begin to describe it - although people probably once said that about space travel...

This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week. NT Stick to your online gambling companies and croc farms