Qantas to outsource ground handling across Australia

[TheInsider]

From what I've heard locally here in SA, it sounds like Swissport is most likely to be awarded the ground handling contract.
Although it was mentioned there's no contract locked in for Adelaide yet so I do wonder if it's been contracted by airport rather than state/nationally.

 

[Mattg]

View attachment 234727

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but who is going to clean the planes in ADL, CBR, CNS, DRW, TSV and ASP?

 

[TheInsider]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but who is going to clean the planes in ADL, CBR, CNS, DRW, TSV and ASP?

Not too sure, they may already have non qantas staff or maybe not yet confirmed.

 

[MooTime]

QF busy sacking another 2,000 ground crew, in meantime they'll focus on more important facet's of the business & issue status extensions & open Chairman Lounge's.

penny pinching more than other airlines which has dire effect.

 

[justinbrett]

QF busy sacking another 2,000 ground crew, in meantime they'll focus on more important facet's of the business & issue status extensions & open Chairman Lounge's.

penny pinching more than other airlines which has dire effect.

Really? Penny pinching more than VA who serve two minute noodles in business class, disbanding their widebodies and can't even commit to keeping their CBR lounge open?

A bit of perspective please.

Status is important as that encourages passengers which is what brings in revenue to pay the bills. It's really quite simple.

 

[MooTime]

Really? Penny pinching more than VA who serve two minute noodles in business class, disbanding their widebodies and can't even commit to keeping their CBR lounge open?

A bit of perspective please.

Status is important as that encourages passengers which is what brings in revenue to pay the bills. It's really quite simple.

I think your underplaying what 2,000 jobs means to 2000+ families. but your status extension means so much more. Did you mention perspective?

ha I think we'll be hearing about 2minute noodles in 10 years if not 20 years time.

CBR lounge...what's that 15 jobs? few suppliers, clearly an unsuccessful lounge, not all airlines or businesses for that matter can run parts of their business at a loss, then when too much of a loss, put your hand out to the insto's & public purse aka SH's.

It was Virgin who brought the widebodies to West Coast flights.

The negativity surrounding Virgin cost cutting is & has been in full swing for months now, wonder what the Australian Airline industry would look like without them? Check some regional routes & there's your answer's.

I see how status pays the bills, there's 25+ comments on this thread alone looking for ways to get around this, loop holes etc.

Aus 25M pop not suffice to keep 2 strong viable Airlines, 1 was saved & now we had 1 full service, 1 mid service & 1 LCC, we have it now better than pre-Covid IMO.
could not have worked out better, but no let's run the negative narrative on & on & on & on & on.....

 

[dajop]

It's come a long way from the days when (to QF's stated desire of having handler serving multiple carriers making it more efficient) when QF used to do a lot of the ground handling for international carriers (I can remember even whilst NZ had ownership of AN, QF were still doing ground handling for NZ at MEL).

 

[UP4014]

The theory is reduced costs through the optimization/centralization of the services. Better buying power, better efficiency, better cost control.

The reality is that service quality now becomes lowest common denominator. Who nowadays calls a service centre that has been outsourced and expects the agent to know more than them about the product or service? We have adjusted to this being acceptable rather than it ever having been comparable to pre-outsourcing levels of knowledge or assistance. Certainly for specialized areas like aviation it would be better than call centres, but as you say all that is left of the outsourcee is brand value and a thin veneer of marketing slapped on a mediocre and generic product.

One thing you missed is it off loads all the people somewhere else, even if the wage cost is the same many of the problems will disappear from the monthly QF Board reporting. Be interesting to see if the lost/damaged baggage liability part of the report changes!

Also I'm sure QF will be writing into the contract should for any reason we are not able to fly we will immediately suspend or terminate our contract. I don't blame them on that part.

 

[Kangol]

I think your underplaying what 2,000 jobs means to 2000+ families. but your status extension means so much more. Did you mention perspective?

If 2000 job losses is what it takes to keep the company of 30,000 employees alive, plus a part of the future of commercial aviation in this country alive, then that's perspective.

No doubt it's terrible, however 2000 redundancies really is the lesser of two evils.

If future revenue goes to one of the Middle Eastern airlines, United, Air NZ or another airline instead of QF, that's going to be hard to reverse.
There's a saying about keeping an existing customer being cheaper than obtaining a new one and all...

 

[MooTime]

If 2000 job losses is what it takes to keep the company of 30,000 employees alive, plus a part of the future of commercial aviation in this country alive, then that's perspective.

No doubt it's terrible, however 2000 redundancies really is the lesser of two evils.

If future revenue goes to one of the Middle Eastern airlines, United, Air NZ or another airline instead of QF, that's going to be hard to reverse.
There's a saying about keeping an existing customer being cheaper than obtaining a new one and all...

plus the 8,000 earlier & these 2000 are not redundancies, there're sackings, given the flick, plain & simple.

mind you I'm not against the status extension, staed that in previous thread, off track here. ok.

seems if Virgin sacked more staff as QF have, that would've been preferred option, certainly by PR standards here instead of Noodlegate.

sackings don't get a blink of an eye, but a serving of noodles is headlines for months, funny that, not!

 

[justinbrett]

plus the 8,000 earlier & these 2000 are not redundancies, there're sackings, given the flick, plain & simple.

mind you I'm not against the status extension, staed that in previous thread, off track here. ok.

seems if Virgin sacked more staff as QF have, that would've been preferred option, certainly by PR standards here instead of Noodlegate.

sackings don't get a blink of an eye, but a serving of noodles is headlines for months, funny that, not!

Take it up with covid.

Lots of businesses are downsizing. Just wait for Jobkeeper to end. Virgin said they expect to lose a third of their staff. You imply Qantas is the only business laying off staff.

These are 2000 redundancies, Qantas is not exempt from IR laws. Many of these will get jobs with the new contractors - that's how these things work. Much cheaper to use people in place who have the local experience rather than train new people. At the end of the day the job still needs to be done, bags need to get from the terminal to the hold.

 

[lc_461]

What will happen to the international airlines that QF currently service? Are they giving away all of these contracts?

 

[Milefest]

Looks like a lose-lose. The 2000 or so staff will mostly be re-employed under notoriously dodgy contractors with a significant reduction of benefits and wages along with the expectation to work longer hours where possible.

Travellers will feel the brunt of this too, expect more lost/damaged luggage, delays and a reduction in customer service when you do encounter problems.

This is not just a short-term response to covid, it's part of a longer term plan for cost reduction and profit.

 

[justinbrett]

Looks like a lose-lose. The 2000 or so staff will mostly be re-employed under notoriously dodgy contractors with a significant reduction of benefits and wages along with the expectation to work longer hours where possible.

Travellers will feel the brunt of this too, expect more lost/damaged luggage, delays and a reduction in customer service when you do encounter problems.

This is not just a short-term response to covid, it's part of a longer term plan for cost reduction and profit.

A lot of assumptions there.

Newcastle is already handled by Swissport and has been for many years (previously under the Aerocare brand). I’ve never had a lost bag and the staff seem quite professional.

If Qantas writes the contracts well they will have required KPIs for the contractor to meet on lost and damaged bags etc - possibly putting the liability on the contractor.

Let’s face it, Qantas ground handling wasn’t exactly world class. Priority bags never worked and the few times I travelled with check bags they took forever.

By diversifying the contractors Qantas will keep them on their toes, if they underperform they won’t get the contract renewed. We could even see an improvement.

 

[milehighclub]

A lot of assumptions there.

Agreed.

Dnata in particular, from my experience, are very good handlers. QF pushed them to start in LAX for below the wing services because they didn't like the other operators. Once Dnata commenced and QF made the switch, the metrics sky rocketed in performance. QF will be keeping these companies accountable to very strict KPIs and the fines that can be imposed can be quite substantial.

Notwithstanding this, I am still very sad to see so many staff made compulsory redundant. A lot of the redundancy to date has been VR.

 

[kelvedon]

I’m surprised at the timing of this announcement. Expect industrial action during the Christmas holidays, when the booking are at a post pandemic high.

 

[jakeseven7]

I’m surprised at the timing of this announcement. Expect industrial action during the Christmas holidays, when the booking are at a post pandemic high.

Doubtful because of the exit clauses...

 

[justinbrett]

I’m surprised at the timing of this announcement. Expect industrial action during the Christmas holidays, when the booking are at a post pandemic high.

It was announced in August as a proposal, but clearly that was just a way to soften the blow.

I don't believe they can legally strike over this as it's not an IR matter. They are being paid their full entitlements.

Plus, if you were an employee right now you'd be doing your upmost to be working during the transition and thus have the best chance of getting employed by the contractor. I assume some won't ever come back to work and those probably won't get jobs. It's an employers market right now.

 

[jpp42]

Will there be any special arrangements where Qantas recommends/provides references/asks the contractor to hire a certain number of ex-QF staff? Or is it just totally open market with the contractor free to hire whoever they consider qualified?

 

[milehighclub]

Will there be any special arrangements where Qantas recommends/provides references/asks the contractor to hire a certain number of ex-QF staff? Or is it just totally open market with the contractor free to hire whoever they consider qualified?

From the company:
Where possible, Qantas will support introductions for QAL and QGS employees interested in employment with the new suppliers. The suppliers will assess their requirement to recruit, which would be subject to their own processes.

So ultimately it will be up to the new suppliers, but I imagine they will be keen to get a number of these experienced staff.