This week’s stand offs between angry passengers and Qantas has seen air travel cross the same threshold of ugliness it did in America , the UK and much of Europe years ago.
It is close to war between some carriers and their customers abroad, with the loathing that exists between British Airways and the mob scenes of its top tier frequent flyer members throwing their cards in disgust on the floor of Heathrow Airport indicative of what happens when incompetence becomes entrenched in service delivery.
But now an Australian airline has started using security and police to protect itself from outraged punters who don’t get what they paid for, which is punctuality, civility and cleanliness.
The invasion of a Qantas Club lounge at Sydney’s international terminal on Monday by passengers who had been completely screwed by a cumulative 24-hour delay on a flight to London really isn’t the amusing incident it was reported as being in some quarters.
It was a rupture of trust that is very dangerous for Qantas, and a clear warning to Virgin Blue and Tiger.
That incident and others that followed this week arise from the inability of Qantas to maintain its fleet in reliable working order.
Pre the lounge invasion Qantas and Jetstar have dumped jetloads of hundreds of passengers at a time in terminals, even outside locked terminals, in Sydney, Perth, Hobart and Honolulu among others as aircraft broke down and staff dithered over the arrangements or obligations needed to accommodate them.
Passengers have been left sleeping on bus shed benches in some cases.
Qantas no longer has enough spare parts nor qualified maintenance staff on duty, to perform the necessary pre-flight or turnaround checks, or carry out what in a full service carrier would be otherwise routine running repairs or rectifications.
It goes beyond the current overtime bans by maintenance workers too. Most of the screw ups in Qantas and Jetstar flights this year have happened before the bans were applied.
The forced withdrawal from service of four aged 747s and several seriously unreliable senior 767s just announced by Qantas will make things much worse. These jets aren’t worth the heavy maintenance they need to remain safe and legal, but the replacements Qantas thought it was getting through a large order of Boeing “Dreamliners” isn’t going to happen this year, as planned, or even next year, as more recently promised by the maker, and possibly not until 2011. The Dudliner hasn’t even flown yet. It is still in pieces in Seattle, being wired together.
Yet the maintenance union claims Qantas gutted its engineering resources in Australia in anticipation of outsourcing even more of the work overseas as it introduces new wide bodied jets including the giant Airbus A380s and the Dreamliners and now seems unable to cope with their late deliveries.
Whatever management and the unions say about their respective positions is lost on alienated customers.
The brand is trashing itself as management finds itself trapped by aircraft makers that can’t deliver, and maintenance arrangements that can’t cope.
well john, don’t be too quick to believe Bluey is any better…
this morning (friday, 06/JUN) i was booked on a Bluey flight (DJ705) @ 0905 from sydney to coolangatta. my partner and i decided to get to the airport early so we could have breakfast before the flight (because the food on the “a la cart” is bloody awful, and quite expensive…) and we arrived there at around 0730. as we walked into the airport, i got a message from Virgin telling me my flight was cancelled!!
we went to “the lounge” to talk to someone about this and were told that “weather” caused the cancellation. when i pointed out that there was perfectly adequate flying conditions in sydney as well as coolangatta (we’d chatted to the friends we were going to stay with just that morning and were told it was beautiful there…) and asked where the “weather” was, i was told that “weather” can occur anywhere on the continent where Bluey flies.
there were no seats on the other flights until 1205, but when asked if that flight would be going, they refused to commit to that. i asked point blank “does this mean that it’s possible this 1205 flight could be cancelled as the 0905 flight was?” and they said YES. they offered to fly us to brisbane, but then we would have to make our own way to coolangatta, and there would be no refund of the difference between the brisbane fare and the inflated coolangatta fare, either. further, as we were only going overnight for a 60th birthday, hanging around the airport for five hours and then MAYBE getting to our destination today wasn’t really good enough, so we cancelled and came home. the whole fiasco cost me $80 in taxi fares but Bluey doesn’t reimburse for such costs because the cancellation was due to “weather”. “weather” is the “get out of jail free” card for any airline, as they cannot be held responsible for it, as opposed to mechanical problems… on top of that, the sweet young thing/Bluey attendant couldn’t deal with the blunt, pointed questions i was putting to her and she muttered that she didn’t “have to put up with this”… great service technique, Virgin.
when looking at the monitor of arrivals/departures, there were at least SIX CANCELLED FLIGHTS, all in an hour and a half time period. this makes me wonder how many other flights during the day will be cancelled and does this have anything to do with Bluey losing $60 million recently?
we’re all going to have to get used to the idea of never being sure we will be able to get a flight when we need/want it, paying an affordable price for it, or being assured that the flights will actually fly as the schedule advises and not be cancelled out of hand, willy nilly, as seems to be happening today…
I’ve been a regular victim of the PER-MEL or PER-SYD routes with Qantas. Delays, over-nighters, breakdowns, curfews you name it. My company uses Qantas exclusively. I offered to pay for Virgin last time, out of my own wallet, rather than fly Qantas.
Like the old schoolyard saying goes: “Qantas don’t want us”
Much of this could all be solved with a fast train from, at least, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and a side-line to Canberra. The flights are becoming crap, but the airports, security and general hanging around have been for some time. As noted, flying in the US is really bad because of all the on-ground hassles.
We shop for no frills[2]. Since when have cleanliness and reliability[1] been frills? Qantas, apparently, think they are.
[1] reliability – include the ability to run flights on-time.
[2] frills I’d say are things like included meals and frequent flyer clubs.
People who blame the punters for seeking the `cheapest flight` are the same who blame the unemployed for losing their job, or the poor for their penury. Those with longer memories, will remember Ansett and how this airline was gutted with government complicity, all in the name of `profitability` and `international competitiveness`. In reality, in this globalised world economy, it`s a race to the bottom, with jobs being axed, `delocalisation`, reduction of services (such as meals), and fare increases in various inventive ways. In short, it will inevitably go to the next round of `downsizing`, restructuring and job losses, whilst the managers give themselves hefty increases. It is almost inevitable that the next air tragedy is not too far away, when profits are the beginning and end in this system in which we live.