Great article however I feel I need to clarify at least one point regarding "Pilot greed" 
as it is way way off the mark. The average wage for airline pilots within Australia ranges form $45k  up to $400K at the $45k end you have the regional pilots flying domestically ie Sydney to Canberra who have just started their airline career and at the $400k end you have International heavy jet senior check captains who have spent the last 40 years flying big jets. Now let me explain how pilots get there. 
Most pilots start out flying small death traps around doing charter flying to get some experience up after spending about $100k to get their licence in the first place. The airlines wont hire them without experience. This gaining experience may take some upto 10 years and most will be lucky to be paid $20k a year for their effort. Then after gaining this experience they will most likely join a regional airline who offer them job security (there is none in charter flying) and a pay rise up to $45k so another 5years of experience in regional flying should see them starting at the bottom of a major airline like Qantas where they can expect to earn about $100k for about the next 10 years as a second officer, before their next promotion to first officer ($200k) and then about another 5-10 years to attain a rank of captain for +$300k. 
A pilot flying for an airline will effectively be asked to re apply for their job four times a year every year in the form of simulator check flights amongst other regulatory exams each year, if they fail to pass these checks then they are out of a job !
So as you can see the path to any wealth is a very long one for a pilot and in fact it is not money that the Qantas pilots are asking for, it is simply to know that they won't have their career limited if not stopped in its tracks by the off shoring of their work. 

The Tasman is an example of how this works. Qantas used to fly Qantas planes across to NZ now only Jet connect do these flights thus Qantas pilots have lost this area of growth and now do not fly the Tasman. The effect of this reduction in flying is to slow their career progression and make it take longer in each stage to get a promotion.
In summary it takes most pilots some 15years (longer than a doctor) to make any where near an executive wage, a doctor looks after 1 person at a time the pilot may have 500 on board. 
Ask a doctor how often they take exams after they graduate and while your there ask them if they would spend 15 years of hard work to earn $100k for the next 10 years while having their brain poked and prodded 4 times each year ?

Make the most of whatever is flying now because when peak oil hits and it surely will, the only flying will be by the very rich and the government.

Everald Compton is showing a lack of knowledge of the act of parliament under which QANTAS operates. Under that act it is not possible for them to operate outside of Australia and because of that I would suggest that it is ultimately doomed. To succeed, the wages of the QANTAS staff would have to be reduced to mere subsistence levels and that is not likely to happen.

David

Unfortunately the whole action of setting up an offshore carrier by QF is not legislated against (Look at Jetstar ASIA and Jet Connect, Both QF subsidiaries) . The law states that QF can NOT sell off more than 49% of its business to a foreign entity. This is EXACTLY why Qantas is setting up subsidiary companies at the demise of its core brand. The plan seems to be to destroy the core brand (or make it look like a dead duck) while growing the subsidiary brands rapidly and the primary reason for this is that NONE yes NONE of the subsidiary brands are covered by the QF sale act ! Thus they can grow these brands and sell them off at will,completely circumventing the whole Qantas sale act.
Sorry to shoot you down David but you are WRONG !

...Qantas follows the same “spiralling” downward trajectory as that other once great Australian icon, the ALP under Gillard. Outside the imperative of jobs, the future of Qantas no longer matters.

Not necessarly wrong. It is just that we won't have QANTAS as such flying any more, only the offshore subsidiaries of which I am well aware.

David

Very well written piece with a pragmatic view of the future of global air commuting. I agree with Bob.M with regard to being cautious about 'pilot greed' etc. This is a business, I personally will fly with anyone who can get me there safely, efficiently and at the best cost.... I do like flying with the kangaroo on the tail tho.
Sarnian... Are you on the right blog here?.... Perhaps you could find an 'occupy' blog somewhere?

Thanks Prompete.
I guess these days people do look at the economy of travel very closely, infact they will drop one carrier for another to save a single $1. The problem is that when you fly you always assume that you are being flown by professionals and thank god that these days many many levels of risk have been removed by the bad experiences of accidents from the past. Unfortunately things still do go wrong and its at these times that all of that experience that I wrote of earlier comes into play. Look at QF32 (The Qantas jet that had the engine explode just last year) on that day each and every one on board that jet was VERY VERY thankful to have some of the most experienced pilots at Qantas aboard to bring them home safely. I ask you this, if that was a new jet with a new airline with far less trained pilots (you do actually get what you pay for there) would the outcome have been anywhere near what it was ...... Fact is when you pay less.... YOU GET LESS wether you think so or not and that includes SAFETY on airlines !

I just couldn't resist......yes what animal indeed?......How about something that represents the greedy little Irish leprechaun:) or a green jackass, with the back end of it displaying where all the thinking comes from:) or what about something thatys 5 foot f..k all thats putting his life in danger by blackmail the very poeple that make him and his kind rich:).......see these little insects think they have all the power...lol.....yeah!....not if everyone says stuff ya!...lol.....No I think Qantas is fine the way it is:)........if it knows whats good for it;)

CACTUS

He says "I vividly remember the great day on which a Qantas 707 took-off from Sydney to take passengers on the inaugural flight right around the world."

Not vividly enough, unfortunately. See http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Lockheed%20Super%20Connie%20VH-EAO%20Qantas.htm which says

On 14 January 1958 VH-EAO was one of two Super Constellations to depart Melbourne/Essendon on Qantas' inaugural round-the-world service

Cactus..2. Oh dear, there goes the posibility of rational or civilised intercourse... Could i possibly refer you to article on todays opinion page entitle 'are australians racist'.. There is NO way i can or would want to acknowledge your submission. Acknowledge your passion tho... So sorry.

The word Kangaroo was appropriated by Banks and Cook when they asked Indigenous Traditional Owners at Cooktown about the hopping biped they saw. Their answer (in Gu Gu Yimidithirr) was that it was a 'Kungaroo'. Which raises even more deeper Questions about capitalism, exploitation, theft and denial. Same deal with the mining tax and Aboriginal lands.

Ranier... With the Nyngumatra and mantiltjara mob in the Pilbarra, the name of the aforesaid biped is "Marlu". When suggesting to a group of young blokes in Jiggalong many years ago the "lets go and get a couple of 'marlu' for a feed, I was laughed at as the butt of a joke. I was unable to 'retroflex' the R, (turn the tongue upside down and flick forward). What I had actually suggested was that we go and get a couple of 'smelly armpit'.... Literally!! I do hope that when I as for a 'cappochino' that I am not making a similar error. To incorporate into Australian english those nouns and lables provided by those with more intimate and accurate knowledge as that posessed at the time by Cook and Banks could also be a recognition of the superior and more accurate nominclature as those that they met at the time....Capitalism, theft appropriation and denial could possibly be just a little prescious perhaps?
Are we straying just a little far from Everards submission?

"Cactus..2. Oh dear, there goes the possibility of rational or civilised intercourse"......Mate! Iam talking about Plains bloke!.......I don't want to root one:)...lol.....mate! you were really funny, and I bet you didn't even know it, did ya:)...anyway, lets put a symbol of you mate!....A f,,king wonbat!......mate...stay off the drugs...lol..

Look! alot of poeple are NOT happy about Qantas and the low acts of upper level types, and I think your one of them:)....I bet your Irish too?.......Now off you go mate.....this sites for big people.

CACTUS

Oh look:0 I forgot to spell-check......People:) I just read the headline:)....."Should Qantas be a kangaroo?"....and I thought that was funny as, except for Mr " lets actually call Qantas another animal name.

However Mr kill-joy, I'll re-frame from any more stupid and none educational satire of humor just for your righteous point thats in the brackets of " important things that Australia needs to address.

My apologies to all members.

CACTUS

Sarnian writes

'Make the most of whatever is flying now because when peak oil hits and it surely will, the only flying will be by the very rich and the government. '

Tell that to the gw alarmist who continue to have numerous alarmist love fests that. They don't believe you just like they don't believe the doctrine of rising sea levels. They keep buying places close to the Ocean.

Funny enough 15 years ago Perth to Sydney return was around $900. Now you can do it for $400. You can fly Perth/Malaysia 500 return with Air Asia. I heard your kind of statement in the 70's. Just happens more and more people are enjoying the luxury of flying. Idiotic Governments introducing foolish carbon taxes are trying to keep the fun to their own tax payer funded junkets. Thankfully our Govt. will be tossed out in the next 2 years.

Don't stress its a con job.

*Fact is when you pay less.... YOU GET LESS wether you think so or not and that includes SAFETY on airlines !*

Ok Bob M, so how much do Singapore Airlines, Cathay and Emirates
pilots earn and are their planes falling out of the sky?

Next question, how many pilots got free training courtesy of
the Australian Air Force?

"Ok Bob M, so how much do Singapore Airlines, Cathay and Emirates
pilots earn and are their planes falling out of the sky?"

Ok Yabby I'll answer that:

Cathay and Emirates pay similar salaries to Qantas, but also provide housing for pilots and Emirates provides medical allowances and education for a pilot's children. This means they are ahead of the QF pilots at the end of the day. Both airlines safety standards are excellent (although they do have slip ups, like EK407 and SQ006, do some research on these). But these are not the standards qantas pilots are fighting against.

They powers that be want to change Qantas's operational standards and pay to something akin to Garuda (which killed 5 australians in a crash in 2007), Lion Air (they've had 4 runway overuns in the past year) or Air India (fake pilots anyone?). Do some research on these companies to see what QF might look like in the future.

QF Pilots know that if they want to make money they head overseas to one of the big middle east/asian carriers. Most of them choose not to and stay with qantas because they are proud of it's position in austalian history and culture, but if they feel there is no future, they will leave and take there highly desired skills to other carriers. This is what managers should be afraid of

Qf pilots offered between 17-22% gains in efficiency and productivity (that would have seen some pilots take paycuts, and others go to jetstar for much less pay) and all they asked for was a guarantee that they would be flying the new airliners that qantas had ordered, on this reduced pay/increased hours contract. For a company that had just announced a $500 million profit, this would have been a major bonus for managers but still they chose to ignore it, and the only thing the pilots did was to wear red ties and make pa's in response. Ok they may have been repetitive but at least they wished no ill harm to anyone and didn't disrupt any passengers.

I'm not opposed to executives making modest bonuses when things are good, but if Alan Joyce wants his staff to to share the pain he should lead from the top. His troops are very willing to make some cuts to go along with him, so please stop this "greedy pilots" nonsense.

And Bob M, btw your first post was very correct, but the salary figures are slightly wrong. Most upgrades in qantas now happen on the short haul contract, where f/o pay is around $105 000 per year (less than an unskilled fly in fly out miner) and captains around $170-180 (less than a qualified surgeon after a comparable amount of study and experience)

And Yabby,

My sources indicate that although RAAF trained pilots in the past made up a larger intake of QF pilots, nowadays they would be around 5-10% of the new intakes. RAAF pilots do have a long return of service obligation where they must stay with the air force before they are free to join an airline.

The majority of pilots would have, like Bob M has said, come through general aviation and outback flying where the pay is lower (appartently some pilots in the NT and northern WA makes less than $30k per year, most regional first officers are on about $35 - $55 000 per year) and the aircraft and environment is more dangerous. Intial flying training cost about $50-70 000 minimum for a cpl (most need much more), around $ 15-20000 for a mandatory instrument rating, $10-15000 for mandatory theory training and anywhere between $10-30000 for other endorsements or hours needed to get that crucial first job. Most companies now charge for retraining on new aircraft as well, and this can be between $10-45000 up front. All these costs have to be paid up front, only a very small proportion of the new pilots have access to HECS through a university course, the majority are self funded.

Oh and Mr Compton, Hudson Fysh was courageous and had tenacity and vision, he was also a pilot, maybe QF should really follow in his footsteps ;)

JPS, what they pay Joyce, frankly does not matter in the bigger
scheme of things, if he gets results. I understand his bonus will
only be paid if he does. Shareholders have been the big losers in
the Qantas saga, the company has largely existed for the benefit of
its employees for a few years. Divide Joyce's salary by 35'000
employees and even if he worked for nothing, it would add little
more then 20 bucks a week to anyone's salary, so really does not
matter.

At the end of the day, consumers are going to decide all this. At
the moment, I gather on international routes, something like 80% choose
not to fly Qantas. I don't blame the pilots, but frankly
your TWU and engineers unions are not exactly helping Qantas gain
sales. If ever I've seen unions help to destroy their workplace,
its them.

If Qantas International is losing 200 million a year, then management
has to take action and change direction. That is their job. Jetstar
is one way to do it. I really don't see why Qantas pilots should
decide how much Jetstar pilots are paid, for Jetstar is based in
Singapore, its only part owned by Qantas.

Pilots are only one spoke in this wheel. In all my dealings with
Qantas, I never got the opinion that staff cared too much. Everyone
was busy feathering their own nest as best as possible. Unless
there is a large change in all employee attitudes, Qantas will
follow Ansett down the gurgler.

Given the giveaway Qantas share price, with mums and dads who believed
the spin having lost their shirts, perhaps the 35'000 Qantas employees
should buy the company. Then they would have a reason to
make it work, their super would be on the line.

Unions cannot demand job security for years, as consumers will fly
with whomever they want

There is one prime reason that Qantas is supposedly losing $200 million on international routes.

All their competitors, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysian Airlines, Air China, China Southern, JAL, ANA, Jet Airways, British Airways, EVA Air, Korean, Philippine Airways, Royal Brunei, Vietnam Airways, Thai International, Asiana, Air Austral, the new Scoot carrier, Air New Zealand, Delta, Air Canada and even Virgin Australia have one big advantage that Qantas doesn't. They all operate the Boeing 777 as the backbone of their long haul fleet. This aircraft is so efficient it carries 90% of a Boeing 747 passenger load at 60% of the fuel burn, and fuel is by far and away the largest cost for an airline.

As much as passengers love the A380, the simple fact is that even it cant match the 777's seat mile costs. The new Boeing 787-8 that the Qantas group has ordered for Jetstar looks like it won't be able to meet its advertised fuel burn/payload performace, leading Emirates only weeks ago to order 50 Boeing 777-300ER's. It has been calculated that if the 777 made up the backbone of the Qantas fleet instead of the 747, the $200m loss would become a $250m profit. C'mon Qantas it's not too late to order them, even Geoff Dixon now admits it was a mistake not to.

TeeZed, I can't comment on your figures quoted, as it would not
be an informed comment, I don't have the numbers. But it would
be up to the present large shareholders to decide if its worth
throwing more of their money to try and rescue Qantas International,
or wether to cut their losses and try a different business strategy.

Given the attitude of some of the unions involved, although not
the pilots, I personally would not invest a single cent
in Qantas.

So why don't the employees buy it and show us how to run it?

Work out the company's value per employee and its not very much.

I won't attempt to correct the factual inaccuracies in this article but rather agree with the author's basic premise that Qantas needs to change.

Agreed!

However, you've got to have rocks in your head to believe that dramatically downgrading your employee's packages and then holding the federal government and public of Australia to ransom is a value-creating strategy. Particularly in parochial Australia.

And no you can't blame your international lines for massive losses from structural issues when the difference between loss and breakeven is the price of 1 single extra ticket sale per flight. (That's a sales problem not a network problem)

And no you can't cry poor when you make the world's best industry profits and pay super rewards to your executive team after massive devaluation of the corporations value.

So, I would have thought that most people trying to increase the value of their business would protect their core profitable services first. (Investment Rule #1: Don't lose money) In Qantas's world this would be things like customer loyalty, service quality, Australian pride, a complete network service offering, and cushy domestic low-competition markets.

And if you were trying to expand your business internationally with domestic sensitivities, terms of trade and a Qantas Sale Act against you, why wouldn't you place your investment funds in a better vehicle.

Like creating a brand new separate corporation.

You could list this new corporation on one of the US stock exchanges (which offer great PE ratios), and offer your existing shareholders the right to buy shares in the new company. You'd then share the same shareholders, could contract out your own management services, and grow your value with low cost labour if this is the best value-creation strategy.

No-one sane wants to stop the Qantas corporation growing but some maturity and superior decision making abilities are called for from the people that are being paid to have those characteristics.