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Qantas Airways Drops
Red Q Idea, Opportunity To Build Employee Relations By Daniel Baxter |
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November 28, 2011 - The collapse of plans to set up a new premium airline in Southeast Asia presents an opportunity to Qantas management to refocus on Qantas operations in Australia.
Qantas management’s plans to establish a ‘Red Q’ airline
in Singapore or Malaysia have been put on indefinite
hold, confirming the predictions of Australian and
International Pilots Association (AIPA) and various
aviation experts who had criticized the scheme as
misguided adventurism.
Qantas Airways is the flag carrier of Australia. The
name was originally ‘QANTAS’. Nicknamed "The Flying
Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main
hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest
airline, the oldest continuously operated airline in the
world and the second oldest in the world overall. |
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Workers at
Qantas are offend with the company attempts to bring in foreign
labor to increase it profits over its workers. Qantas chief
executive, Alan Joyce, earns $5 million a year and the company
continues to see high net profits year after year. A
long-running industrial battle has seen Qantas pilots make
unauthorized, in-flight announcements that have led to the
banning of an in-flight John Travolta film, in which Travolta
says he wants Qantas pilots in the cockpit.
“We’ve
said for months that this whole plan was incredibly risky and
wholly unnecessary. Qantas management had little to gain and
everything to lose from pursuing a race to the bottom in
Southeast Asia,” AIPA Vice President Captain Richard Woodward
said today.
“Thankfully, this potentially disastrous plan seems to have
collapsed before fatal damage could be done to the Qantas brand
and the Qantas business. Jettisoning the renowned Qantas brand
in order to establish no-name ‘premium’ operations in Southeast
Asia was never a recipe for success. Over 90 years, Qantas has
created two core brand strengths: unique Australian identity and
an unparalleled safety reputation built on the highest
Australian standards.
“With the
Red Q brain-snap now thankfully grounded for good, Alan Joyce
and his management team are faced with a great opportunity. They
can drop the risky business adventurism, drop the industrial
warrior games and focus instead on building on Qantas’s
strengths.
“That
means re-engaging with the Qantas workforce who, in spite of
recent events, still has enormous love and respect for the
airline. Government has a role to play here as well. Recent
changes made by the Federal Government to the Maritime Act will
reinvigorate Australia’s shipping industry. Similar changes
could be applied to aviation. |