Qantas ponders Cairns cuts

A report by Scott Rochfort in The Sydney Morning Herald says that Qantas’ cost-cutting efforts are set to go into overdrive, with the national carrier assessing the possible retrenchment of up to 500 staff in Cairns.

Barely a week after offering 150 voluntary redundancies to its full-time flight attendants, Qantas confirmed yesterday that it is conducting a review of its international operations out of the resort city in Far North Queensland.

Qantas spokeswoman, Belinda de Rome, confirmed that Qantas Executive GM, John Borghetti, had yesterday “met with various people to talk about the market and get a first-hand view of our business”, with Mr Borghetti meeting the Mayor of Cairns, Kevin Byrne, and several business leaders and Qantas staff.

His review of the airline’s Cairns operations is expected to be complete before the airline cedes more international flights to its low-cost subsidiary, Jetstar, this year and it is rumoured that Qantas staff could be offered redundancy or lower-paying jobs at Jetstar.

Speculation about planned job cuts has been fuelled by Jetstar advertising for international cabin crew in Cairns, before its launch in August of international services from there to Japan and with Jetstar set to replace Qantas, former Australian Airlines services on two routes from Cairns to Japan by September, unions fear Australian Airlines staff could be encouraged to take up new, lower-paying jobs at the low-cost carrier.

Qantas’s loss-making Australian Airlines subsidiary was killed off as a brand last July, when its fleet of Boeing 767s was repainted in Qantas colours and crews were re-outfitted in Qantas uniforms, but Australian Airlines technically still operates as an airline, with its jets and crews “wet-leased” to their full-service parent, with its 300 or so cabin crew are still paid Australian Airlines rates of pay.

Unions see the possible cuts in Cairns as part of a wider plan by Qantas to push more of its workers onto non-union Australian workplace agreements and some in the union movement also see a ploy by Qantas to weaken some unions, in this case the Flight Attendants Association of Australia’s international arm, whose relations with Qantas management are far from harmonious.

In a media release this week, Qantas questioned the relevance of the union, saying Qantas cabin crew deserved “better than to have the Long Haul FAAA” and there is talk that Jetstar will try to hire some of the retrenched Australian Airlines crews, albeit on lower rates of pay, with Jetstar long-haul cabin crew working 15% longer hours, earning 25% less pay and getting fewer holidays than Australian Airlines crew.

ACTU Senior Industrial Officer, Richard Watts, said the reports of possible job cuts would be hugely disappointing to many Australian Airlines staff, adding, “A lot of them are ex-Ansett people who have moved from Melbourne,” adding, “They are now once again out of a job.”

The Australian and International Pilots Association general manager, Peter Somerville, said the cuts would not affect pilots who could be deployed elsewhere in Australia.

Jetstar spokesman, Simon Westaway, confirmed that the low-cost subsidiary had started advertising for staff six weeks ago and planned to establish a 73-strong cabin crew base in Cairns by August, but Mr Westaway declined to comment on whether Jetstar was planning to replace the one remaining Australian Airlines flight out of Cairns, which goes to Tokyo.

Jetstar already has 100 staff based in Cairns.

Report by The Mole from the Sydney Morning Herald