Gotta love the greed and short-sightedness of the majority of posters.
Ever given a fleeting glance on what your kids and grandkids will be doing for a career?
A barrista serving at the local International Chinese Airport in Melbourne?It's OK ,your son with his 3 Uni Degrees living at home with Mum and Dad at 35 because the average Aussie wagewill be $20,000.00 a year,based on a 75 hour week.
Even the Murdoch Grub press,tonight the Scum-Herald are claiming Wharfe workers on Melbourne's Waterfront at P & O are earning in excess of $100,000.00 per year for a 38 hour week.
Show me please!
I can say it's nowhere near that,but F**k Em as they are workers.
Greedy,selfish people,ever wonder why you left UK under Thatcher and her Nirvana nation of smashing the unions?????????Whats that its too hard to live there????mmmmmm,why is that?????
Didn't think so.

Your post shows exactly why things are as they are.

If we could ignore reality and wish away the rest of the world you could just be right. Unfortunately life ain't like that.

The airline business has been overcapacity for decades low cost arrivals pop up everywhere and the cost base of emerging economies is very substantially lower than (especially) Australia.

If there was a real free-for-all in the airline industry, with any operators allowed to fly wherever they wished, Qantas would go under the next day. I'm not saying that would be something to wish for, but it *is* the actual reality.

I happen to think that the so-called premium airlines do have much to offer both in terms of looking after their customers when things go pearshaped as well as their massive historical expenditure in the field of safety - but when most people click on the internet on the lowest cost flight from A to B they are having to cut back all the time, and having unions which brag about bringing them to their knees over months and years of slow boil action isn't going to save jobs.

One decade the lefties are leaving because of Maggie and the next the Mail readers are leaving because of Blair.

Like it or not we are in an international economy and you make money or go like Ansett or Greece.

You forgot to mention the 'floods' of immigrants

Spent most of the morning watching Alan Joyce in front of the senatorial hearing.

I have to say he was *most* impressive: he had 99% of the facts at his fingertips, he didn't give in to the watermelon (who seems pretty ignorant about most of the industry) and he put forward IMO conclusive argument that he did the correct thing in shutting QF down as he did.

It's the government that comes out badly - they knew, or had been advised, that the grounding was a distinct possibility, yet chose not to activate their own legislation to prevent it - in case it didn't work!

And for them to accuse QF of not telling them in advance that there was to be a lockout! Excuse me laughing: the government is in the hands of the unions and the word would have got out to the latter before the minister had put the phone down!

The Scottish guy who was grilling Joyce is a hardcore unionist. Are the government really going to stop QF expanding into Asia? Every other contry in the west is, so why not QF? Forcing them to pay Australian wages to offshore staff will destroy Jetstar and mean the end of cheap flights. Virgin and Tiger would eat them alive.

I noticed the libs stayed clear to avoid the tar brush Qantas has at the moment. It was a bit of a protectionist love in.

I saw the Holden unions are getting in on the same act. 6 Billion was the cost of the last bail out and they still produce horrible cars.

?

Joyce is a sociopath that doesn't understand what he's done. Hell, he's not ever had an idea what he's doing. Sooner he goes, the better for Qantas.

You used to work for BA? You should know then how unions were able to twist management around their little fingers in the past, with the government quietly looking the other way in the interest of "harmonious industrial relations".

Qantas has been in exactly the same position for decades - even deeper in fact. I doubt whether it would go under in the next couple of years, but continuing as if past practice was a sensible way of running a business would lead to a continuing decline in passenger numbers, routes and profits and in due course to its demise as an Australian airline.

As Joyce said at the hearing, QF had three options: to capitulate to the unions, to look forward to months or years of short strikes, some being called off when flights had been cancelled, or to bring matters to a head. The Gillard government had legislation available to call a halt, but is paid for by the unions and was sh1t scared of invoking it for fear of their paymasters. So it stood there and watched the events unfolding - and we now have the unpleasant picture of unions and their senators attacking Joyce for doing what was really inevitable all along.

Plus ça change.

Qantas cannot compete on price alone.

That leaves quality and user friendliness.

Both take energised and committed workforces.

But Joyce just shat on the workforce AND the customers.

Only way out, sack the little shit, apologise, and hope you can drag it back over time.

There are better cheaper airlines already and Qantas is already losing money. The US route used to make them money but once Delta and Virgin joined the party Qantas started to lose money on International routes. If they carry on the international division will close.

Qantas doesn't compete on price, service OR user friendliness at present - that's its problem.

Passengers take safety for granted and in most cases it doesn't come into their thinking when they book (perhaps it should, but that's life.) What's left is just what you said (and include price which is probably in fact the decider) - and QF, BA, all the American operators and many others are third rate in comparison with some Asian airlines in customer experience.

BTW, calling Joyce a sociopathic little sh1t doesn't help your case.

Well Qantas are already beaten by many other airlines in those departments so they MUST compete on price or disappear.

Which is kind of the point. I agree the price has to be bought into some kind of line, but the real battlefield for an airline like Qantas is quality. They have been bad, because their management is bad. They need to fix that, big time. However you HAVE to take your workforce along if that is the aim, and Joyce just shat on them. No ifs or buts, you cannot win whilst the workers are looking for, and assuming, an exit.

But the point is, that IS what he is. He locked out the workers and grounded an airline without the slightest thought as to who would be harmed. In fact he chose the timing with malice aforethought - he chose when would cause the biggest harm. Not only that, he did it immediately after getting a $2m payrise.

Look up the definition of sociopath - he's textbook.

They CANNOT compete on price, not a hope. So....