Qantas moves to easy fury over delayed flights
According to a report in The Australian, Qantas says its on-time performance is returning to normal after recent dismal performances, but the improvement cannot come soon enough for front-line staff bearing the brunt of customer anger.
Qantas traffic figures took a hit in June and July as the airline’s on-time performance slumped and cancellations soared.
The airline blamed the delays on industrial action with engineers, but union leaders note that the dispute ended in mid-July and say more recent problems are due to other factors such as problems with a new computer system.
Incoming chief executive Alan Joyce admitted last week that business passengers had deferred travel because of reliability issues but said that that market was now returning as on-time performance improved.
“We’ve had some days back on the 90 per cent on-time performance domestic and I think we’re sitting at about 80 per cent for the month,” he said.
“So that’s a lot better than the sixties we were getting in July and we think that by the end of September we will have most of the fleet back to normal and it will be back up into the mid-80s, where Qantas traditionally sits.”
Any improvement is good news for flight attendants and customer service staff, who have been on the receiving end of customer anger about the airline’s dismal performance.
Flight attendants told The Australian this week that staff on many flights were being abused because of the delays.
“Almost every day I am being ridiculed either aggressively or sarcastically,” said one flight attendant on a Sydney-Perth flight. “Some passengers think it’s funny to have a crack at us.”
Another Melbourne-based flight attendant on a Perth-Sydney flight said she knew of at east two flight attendants who had been brought to tears by abusive passengers.
“I get abused most flights,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just a subtle dig, other times nasty comments. I am sick of it.”
Australian Services Union assistant national secretary Linda White said check-in and call centre staff were also a target for abuse. She said significant numbers of Qantas customers had now had bad experiences because of delays and cancellations and there was a lot more anger.
The storming of the Qantas Club by angry passengers in Sydney earlier this year was an indication of how infuriated people had become.
They were also much quicker to ring the media and vent their frustration.
“People are far more aggressive and less tolerant than they’ve ever been,” she said.
She added that a new departure control system had compounded the problem.
Ms White called on Qantas to do more to help staff deal with the aggression.
She said the Qantas brand had been damaged by the delays and predicted that winning back customer trust and improving staff morale would be difficult.
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