Tall Poppy attacks on Jetstar International continue

As readers of Travel Mole will know, some Aussies possess a very unfortunate trait of knocking tall poppies and trying to slash them down to the level of others, even sometimes if that is the lowest denominator.

Qantas owned Jetstar is currently suffering the same tall poppy slashing fate its competitor Virgin Blue suffered on set up and continues to suffer from, which was also suffered by now departed from scheduled services OzJet, never given a chance by the tall poppy syndrome supporters. 

Interestingly, it is also reported that OzJet is doing very well from charters and from the provision of an aircraft for the Norfolk Island services, reportedly much better than it might have done from operating a scheduled carrier!

Reports in the print media today continue the uniformed tall poppy slashing at Jetstar by “revealing” that pilots applying for a job with Jetstar International will have to pay up $150 for an interview and $33,000 to train to fly the airline’s Airbus 330-200S, following on from “revealing” an $89 interview fee for flight attendant applicants – The Mole reported on that because we think that is actually pushing it as flight attendant salaries are not high.

The Mole believes in accurate reporting and editorial integrity and we think that it is time to stop the Aussie tall poppy knocking trait and accentuating the positive – of course always maintaining accurate and unbiased reporting!

So, what about instead of knocking Jetstar in its attempts to control costs to the benefit of the customer, something its parent Qantas has failed to do due to the control of the unions and in reality has had to set up Jetstar to do so, what about extolling the virtues of the establishment of a new a low cost carrier entering the market place and making travel more affordable for Australians?  

In term of Jetstar charging for training pilots it appears that it is pretty well standard practice around the world to do so and even Qantas ties trained highly paid pilots into a contract or bond for their extremely expensive training, but remember this is only a portion of the costs. 

Qantas also charges young “wannabe” pilots in the region of $70,000 for its Qantas Cadet Programme with anyone wanting to learn to be pilot at a commercial training school expecting to pay in the region of $100,000 and the Bachelor of Flying Programme at the University of New South Wales which includes qualifying as a commercial pilot believed to cost in excess of $100,000, with aircraft type training costing more.

So, to The Mole’s little ears, the Jetstar deals sounds pretty good for aircraft type training, with candidates already qualified as commercial pilots on other large passenger aircraft.

Why do airlines charge for pilot training?  Because the skills the pilots gain through the airline spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on training are highly portable and in demand with other carriers, who often do not want to spend the dollars training their pilots and go shopping for type trained pilots, offering them more money, because they do not spend money on type training!

Alan Joyce Jetstar’ CEO has quite rightly explained that numerous low cost airlines around the world, including Virgin and Ryanair require pilots to have previous training to use their aircraft, while other airlines tie pilots to a bond if they receive training.

Mr Joyce also believes that Jetstar’s pay rates are very competitive, evidenced by the  over 1,000 applications they have received and that Qantas rates are too high, with the $180,000 annual salary of a Jetstar A330 captain about $100,000 less than a Qantas captain, something it is certain Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon would be very keen to reduce!

So guys, let’s stop the knocking and tall poppy syndrome slashing and give Jetstar International a chance!

NB: TravelMole does not receive any advertising or commercial support from either Jetstar or Qantas.

Report by The Mole