Qantas: greedy & dangerous

Jules Andrews

Anyone watching the Olympics broadcast would now be familiar with 
the heart-melting Qantas ad which has scores of angelic children 
sweetly singing I still call Australia home. However, 
investors looking for even sweeter music were doubly rewarded by 
Qantas last week: a record profit of $648 million and news that 
JetStar, the domestic budget airline fully-owned by Qantas, will 
be moving its maintenance operations offshore.

If this move is considered along with Qantas' plans to move 400 
flight attendant jobs offshore to London, we get a clearer 
picture of the Flying Kangaroo — a company intent on slashing 
its Australian workforce by moving as many of its operations off 
shore as possible.

Low-cost JetStar is already notorious for cost-cutting when it 
comes to safety, and the latest move may end up being a nail in 
the coffin — literally — of its passengers.

Why call Australia home?

JetStar currently services its fleet of Boeing 717s at Newcastle, 
on the NSW central coast. However, with Newcastle physically 
unable to accommodate the fleet of larger Airbus A320s JetStar 
has on order, the airline is seeking out new quarters.

The budget airline has announced that jobs would definitely be 
going overseas: the most probable move would be to contract out 
the work to an existing A320 base — with lower paid workers — 
owned by Air New Zealand.

What JetStar failed to tell the public was that there is already 
a custom-made A320 base sitting vacant in Australia — the 
disused Ansett base in Melbourne.

Along with utilising Australia's existing infrastructure JetStar 
would also then be able to offer employment to the dozens of ex-
Ansett engineers who have not been able to find suitable 
employment since the airline's collapse.

It is practical common sense to have all aspects of an airline's 
operations — including maintenance — working together, not 
contracted out piecemeal around the world.

Since its launch, JetStar's cost-cutting on safety measures has 
left the airline plagued with problems, and an offshore move 
would put further distance between the engineers and the safety 
of the aircraft.

"Unwarranted and careless"

JetStar is determined to abandon the pre-flight safety inspection 
and attendance during pushback (when an aircraft backs up from 
the terminal prior to taxiing down the runway) by licensed 
engineers at every take-off — a safety measure long regarded as 
sacrosanct in the Australian aviation industry

In an open letter to Qantas General Manager Alan Joyce, ALAEA 
(Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association) Federal 
Secretary David Kemp elaborates: "The ALAEA regards the 
introduction of operating procedures which remove Licensed 
Aircraft Maintenance Engineers from the transit/turnaround phase 
of an aircraft's operations to have the potential to seriously 
impact on the safety of the airline fleet.

"The ALAEA holds grave fears that a continuation of this 
procedure, with significantly reduced engineering presence at the 
transit of the aircraft, increases the likelihood of damage to 
aircraft and equipment and/or injury to airline workers and 
passengers.

"In the view of the ALAEA this constitutes not only a serious 
breach of trust by JetStar but also raises the risks involved in 
the dispatch of aircraft in an unwarranted and careless manner. 
Under-resourced and over-worked ground handling crews are being 
charged with levels of responsibility for which they have been 
provided grossly inadequate training and for which they are ill-
equipped in terms of qualifications, experience and knowledge.

"The ALAEA appeals to you, in the interests of public safety and 
the safety of airline workers to reinstate suitably qualified, 
trained and experienced Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 
to the role of engineer in charge of the pushback — a function 
for which they are qualified and have been trained."

Since the letter was written JetStar has suffered a further spate 
of safety incidents.

"A near collision, smoke in the cabin and slashed seatbelts low-
lighted another ugly month in the short life of cut-price 
operator, JetStar", the ALAEA August newsletter tells us.

Those incidents occurred as planes were approaching or leaving 
Queensland holiday destination, Hamilton Island. And on July 27 a 
flight attendant was transferred to hospital suffering from smoke 
inhalation after a diversion and emergency landing at Mackay.

"We don't want to see Australia's world class safety record 
undermined by the new low-cost airlines and we will be doing all 
we can to convince them to use the expertise of licensed aircraft 
maintenance engineers before each and every flight", says David 
Kemp.