Note that this was a post from my blog at an older location: Posted July 18 2008
Yeah, I’m going to complain about Qantas. As some of you should know, I don’t like Qantas, and I laugh at everytime I hear someone say Qantas, or when Qantas is mentioned/written somewhere. Qantas was charged by something earlier this year for price-fixing along with British Airways and some other major airlines. I dislike Qantas even though I have almost no relation to Qantas what-so-ever and neither have I actually flown on them… The only “good” thing I can say about Qantas, is that they’re ordering the Airbus A380 and they should receive it in July or August! Although, today, as most of you probably know Qantas is cutting jobs, cutting flights, retiring aircraft, and closing down call centres… The exact-ish details are written below:
> 1,500 workers worldwide will be sacked.
> Canceling plans to hire 1,200 people.
> Retire 22 older aircraft from its fleet of 228.
> Close call centers in Tucson, Arizona and London.
All this why? Because of “Rising oil prices” that cut short their profits. They have also increased fares this year due to “rising oil prices” despite huge profits reported last financial year! Why sack the workers? Many of them are a part of the maintenance crews that service the aircraft and fix/check if there are any problems with the aircraft! The call centres however, I’m inclined to let that slide because I don’t think that they are absolutely necessary, and that they get many customers from it… As for the 22 older aircraft, I am unsure which ones they are, but Qantas was planning on replacing a lot of aircraft as their fleet is aging. As of today, Qantas has at least 200 aircraft on order, so I guess retiring the 22 is alright.
Well, I’d expect a few more fare increases on their already overpriced fares sometime this year no matter how much oil costs in the future, and the CEO, Geoff Dixon, to step down sometime either this year, or mid/early next year. Although I can’t wait till Qantas receives it’s A380 and it starts flying to cities all over the world. Heh, Qantas… Should be interesting to see when they lose their first jet!
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