Albertinho

It certainly takes some finesse to be able to simultaneously fuck over your passengers, staff and shareholders

Qantas has grounded its entire fleet and is locking out its staff in response to unions’ industrial action.

…

I dont think people realise how fucked the Qantas brand was prior to these disputes. And many people have called this the inevitable result of union stubbornness but things are more complex than that.

Qantas haven’t supplied dividends to their shareholders in years. Despite this, Alan Joyce still gets a “shareholder voted” pay rise because most of the proxy votes are controlled by two investment firms which are bros with Joyce. They deliberately stopped orders for more efficient AirBus aircraft, essentially preventing an opportunity to lower fuel costs with a better fleet. They let their competitors Emirates, Singapore, Thai, Virgin and United take over routes they should have been servicing years ago with one-stop flights such as Frankfurt, Vancouver and Vienna. They’re obsessed with creating a new Asian airline when both Jetstar Pacific and their partnership with AirAsia were failures.

It was only a matter of time that employee matters would catch up.

I have friends and family friends who work in the industry. I also worked at Sydney Airport myself for some time. Qantas is a name held in high esteem, and not much else. It’s going the way of Aerolineas Argentinas, an airline that taints the country to which it takes its name. I’ll be surprised if it keeps its OneWorld membership after this. They are so screwed.

Also I’m in hospital again.