Qantas boss to outline big international shake-up
 

22 JUN: Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will outline major changes to international operations in a luncheon speech to the National Press Club in Canberra today, Fairfax media reports this morning.

Fairfax speculates that the changes will include abandoning some routes and having others taken over by Jetstar.

There’s also likely to be greater use of alliance partners.

Mr Joyce on several occasion recently has made it clear that the international division is losing money and the Fairfax report puts the figure at $200m a year.

Today’s speech, which is scheduled to be broadcast on ABC-TV at 12.30pm, could be interesting in more ways than one.

Fairfax says that the airline’s industrial arch-enemy, the Transport Workers Union, is believed to have booked a table at the lunch.

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I thought as an airline to survive it should expand and not contract. I guess it won't be too long and Qantas wil be taken over as the larget interntional airline even out of Sydney - what a joke that would be!!

To survive they need to make money! So no point expanding or continuing routes that could/are loosing money.

I am curious to see if QF will do anything to their PVG and NRT services. It seems to me that these two routes hardly get a decent loading. I am also keen to find out if they will touch their DFW route.

Well if Royal Brunei has just cut all routes down under except MEL then nothing from Qantas will surprise me :eek:

announcement on August 24th, what a contemptuous ****.

be interesting to see how long share-holders stick with Joyce.

What do you want him to do Montague? You know there are rules that CEO's have to play by to manage the stock market and the ASX in general, Qantas afterall is a publicly listed company, not the state owned benevolent society some think or wish Qantas to be. Indeed even Virgin did the same, by announcing an outline of their basic plan a few months before, along with a date for all when will be revealed.

I personally trust that he will do what NEEDS/MUST to be done and I think for the time being at least the board is happy they have someone who will make and do the hard decisions to get the company re-invigorated. It is just a pity that about all that is left is workforce reform hence all this mud slinging and character assassination of Joyce in particular. It wouldn't matter who was at the helm, even Borghetti, the message and realities would be the same.

Maybe a massive colour change to silver.It was said when Joyce went over he was there for alternative reasons:D

Maybe that is exactly what is needed to keep the company alive and the majority of the Australian workforce in jobs!

I do wonder how a silver livery with an orange kangaroo on the tail would look?

After reading all your nonsense it appears as plain as day to me that you have no idea if the significance of August 24th.

Thanks for telling me what I already knew.

Please do tell what is significant about August 24, other than the fact that is the day of the Qantas announces their final year results. Though let me guess that was also the date Jetstar was first announced?

PS you, or any others for that matter have not actually said what they would do if they were Joyce to turn Qantas around, or are many in denial thinking $500m is a good profit and the company is running along fine and not in danger of total collapse?

Two quotes:

“The combination of our two domestic flying brands, Qantas and Jetstar, together with Jetstar International, Qantas Frequent Flyer and Qantas Freight, has enabled us to withstand a number of major events affecting our performance. On a combined basis, these businesses are profitable and are returning in excess of their cost of capital.

“In FY11, Qantas International is forecast to generate a loss before interest and tax of approximately $200 million, on invested capital of over $5 billion, with a weaker result expected next year"

Could someone please explain to me why all of the first named parts of the business are profitable on a COMBINED basis, and yet International is singled out?

International could have been combined in that first list, as, combined, they are all profitable!

So that begs the question - which of those first named areas - Q domestic, J domestic, J international, Freight and FF, are NOT profitable, and WHY is it that only Q International is being singled out? Could it actually be that one of the hallowed parts of the company, which is supposed to be the model of efficiency, is actually not making money?

I watch NPC often and I have never seen anyone receive applause during their speech, odd that Joyce was applauded when making certain remarks...or just fishy?

I thought something was up too, especially since he had some of his associates in the room. Perhaps they were on cue (or on:Q)...

A few points of interest I will refer to below.

Firstly a poignant quote from 2008 Alan Joyce said after becoming QF CEO 'the rumour going around is that we are going to try and make Qantas into a low cost carrier. That would absolutely be the wrong thing to do' The Australian newspaper . How times have changed!

Secondly, Joyce included Jetstar Asia I'n his list of successful arms of the company. Refer here http://m.smh.com.au/business/budget-...206-1aid3.html JQ Asia have Never made a substantial profit and indeed suffered more losses then profit I'n what is a cutthroat Market.

Thirdly, he alludes to the fact QF Intl cost base is so much higher then their competitors. Why's this? Crew pay makes up a very small proportion
Of this cost basis . Maybe poor management is at play given Cathay ek and most other major top airlines seem to have it sorted.

It shocks me he sees the Intl arm as such a risk with 3 billion I'n the bank. His fleeting reference to Ansett i found uncalled for and pretty inappropriate and the whole speech seemed like a justification for jetstar international to go fully global Ie pvg or other china base and reduction I'n Qf services (august 24 announcement )

google is your friend...try 1989 and pilots dispute.

the Co isn't running along fine, and the problem is the people running the company...this is the same CEO that jumps on a QF flight to an IATA meeting in Singapore and trashes the brand whilst giving his speech, then gets on a QF flight and heads back home.

not sure, but from where I sit he deliberately trashes the international arm at any chance he can get...and I suspect that he does it so that Australian's will feel less aggrieved when he finally starts dumping the international arm in some part of Asia.

Google takes me to this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Au...s'_dispute

cant see anything there about a date of the 28th

but what has that to do with QF,as Qantas was not part of the pilots strike (from memory)

ps don't forget under ASX rules QF must report its Preliminary final reports by 31 August each year

^ try reading the dates correctly...but here you are.

http://www.vision.net.au/~apaterson/...m#APPENDIX%209

Andrew it is all part of the conspiracy theory, which is just a smoke screen for not facing reality.

agree, the thought that someone in QF would set a results announcement date, which by the way is date that would have been pencilled in over 2 years ago, and locked in over a year ago, to coincide to an event back in 1989 is crazy

Perhaps, we will get a slow filter of information similar to that of DJ?

news.com.au

Talk in this Age article of JQ or 3K flying to Beijing and JQ replacing QF to BKK, with EZE to be scrapped.

I'm wondering how Jetstar to compete against Chinese airlines.
Low price? Air China offers $850 including tax return for Sydney/Melbourne to Beijing, and China Southern's quote is $800 via Guangzhou.

I agree Danfeng, might have an advantage if it is direct though. Qantas tried it but didn't last long (anybody know when the QF135 stopped?)

Flight is a continuation of JQ7/8.

Danfeng, both CA and CZ fares are seasonal fare targeting tough period which often seen during this time of the year.

Peter, QF191/QF192 (SYD/PEK/SYD) services were suspended in Apr 09. I think QF135/QF136 were the flight numbers used for SYD/SHA/PEK/SHA/SYD back in late 90's.

Agreed.
But we always can get around $900 return tickets for CA, CZ & MU except for Christmas and Easter from travel agents.

The inbound is one hell of a trip

PEK-SIN 0250-0930
SIN-MEL 2050-0655

25hrs! No thanks :eek:

That is quite a stopover but luckily SIN has plenty of action for spotters :)

QF135/136 were the flight nos used for SYD-TPE-SYD - which ceased many years ago.

Thanks Scott and Michael. I knew they did try it before. As already mentioned though the Chinese travellers are very loyal to their airlines but of course there isn't that much competition (between the two cities). All QF do is a daily Shanghai service from Sydney AFIK.

I also know that flight went thru BNE as well as Austasia 135/136 when it was Australia-Asia airlines.

My thoughts:

A new airline called Qantas Asia will be announced on August 24th (approximate anniversary of the pilots strike back in '89)

Qantas will move all their long haul operations and base them out of Singapore/Hong Kong/Bangkok and thus require their pilots to resign contracts on much lower salaries than what they are currently on.

I personally do not think they have been over paid at all. My personal opinion is that they are under paid at the moment. When I worked for a company my salary increased relative to inflation how QF pilots didn't. To me that is disgusting.

Alan Joyce says in not so many words - I like the pilots but I don't like the unions. ABC Interview

Thought - The union is made up of pilots.

Why would Alan Joyce give a f#$% about an Australian carrier he is Irish. He doesn't give two hoots. Like Sol from Telstra, he didn't give two *****s about Telstra, left it in a piece of crap state for someone else to clean up. Thankfully its happening now.

It's foul what is happening and it's a story that requires some proper journalism and media coverage at the highest levels from both sides of the fence not just the Qantas spin from HQ.

Beau

I think your prediction is well off the mark. Qantas will not set-up an offshore operation to replace the Australian one and force staff to resign and apply for work in the offshore entity. It will however attempt to set-up one and channel expansion through this entity. This 'airline' will either be called Qantas or Jetstar. My prediction is this may well be out of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, it won't be Hong Kong or Bangkok though.

As for the amount of money staff are paid, at the end of the day weather any staff are are over or underpaid is actually irrelevant. The bottom line is the cost of staff relative to the amount of income the airline receives for it's services, in such a competitive international environment is too high. Qantas, or any business CANNOT survive if it isn't making money to cover their costs, and this is what is happening international where to remain competitive Qantas must charge less than it costs to operate. This is clearly not sustainable.

As for pay going up at the rate of inflation, no employee anywhere should expect this, but most of us do and do get it. But you know what all that does is increases inflation so it disappears as easy as it comes. Over the past 10 years Australian incomes have gone up significantly, coupled with tax cuts, which has lead to the massive increases we see in the cost of living. This is one of the many reasons why Qantas is now so unprofitable on international routes, where it competes with an international cost base, but domestically, where the cost base is the same it does ok.

Back in the early 1990's Paul Keating described the recession that was going on at the time as 'the recession that Australia had to have", sadly a recession of this order is what we need in this country to bring costs back into a sustainable position. But no politician will ever allow that to happen because it would cause direct hurt, but the way things are going there is going to be hurt anyway. The question is do we need one where it can be controlled or one where the market controls it?

As for Joyce, the fact he is Irish is irrelevant. He is there to do a job and is trying to do it. If Borghetthi got the top job at Qantas you could bet your bottom dollar that he too would be trying to make similar changes. Indeed Borghetthi was involved up to his eye***** with the creation of Jetstar which was the start of the push to reduce costs, Joyce is just continuing what Dixon, Borghetti and co started.

PS mods, why is the word b a l l s (as in eye b a l l s) stared out?

1. Qantasia
2. Qantas, A Jetstar Group Airline

The SMH makes the following comments on likely QF international route cuts:

LAX-JFK: Cancel - rely on AA alliance
AKL-LAX: Transfer to JQ
SYD-HNL: Under consideration for cancellation
SIN-BOM: Under consideration for cancellation
SYD-EZE: Under consideration for cancellation
SYD-JNB: Keep

Full article here.

AKL-LAX has been long mooted for JQ as they have NZ-based staff don't they? Either that or they'll be ops by SIN-based staff doing SIN-AKL-LAX and return.

Wouldn't be surprised to see QF dropping off EZE, HNL and BOM as per the SMH article, perhaps BKK too if they can feed more LHR traffic through other ports.

How long until all the JQ aircraft are then repainted in QF colours, staffed by pilots and crew on much lower wages with less conditions?

I was always under the impression LAX-JFK was great for cargo. Maybe not anymore?

Keeping JNB is a no-brainer.

Not long to wait now, QANTAS group management has lost patience with the unions at QF mainline and will do their own thing, if the mainline employees want to come along for the ride, all well and good, if not they will have to find another airline to work for. :(

So guess this frees up an A330 ?

Can Qantas/Jetstar A330's operate AKL/LAX & LAX/AKL without weight restriction ?

Obviously HNL will go. Can;t work out why it's lasted so long.

The big question is how long will QF INT last & how soon QF will only be BNE, SYD, MEL, CBR & PER & rest will be given to JQ.