I spent 32 years working for Qantas before stress-related illness obliged me to retire on the advice of medical specialists. It IS an Australian icon and, I was proud to be associated with the company where I was fortunate enough to witness the propellor-driven era and it's transition to ever bigger and faster jet power, though I was never in awe of aircraft per-se ... perhaps, because their inherent romanticism was somewhat dulled by its association with work(?)
Apart from the forging of life-time friend-ships, I came away with the over-riding memory of almost constant belt-tightening on the expenditure side in a largely futile endeavour to match ever ballooning operational costs with revenue aspirations. That's not to say there weren't a goodly number of years when the company showed a healthy profit. But, it does illustrate that airlines are predominantly in the 'discretionary market', where the general state of the economy dictates good, bad or indifferent trading conditions in much the same way as weather rules the viability of farming. Except, that enormous capital costs are a stable requirement of success, no matter what shape the market is in.
During my entire tenure with 'the big white Rat', the company was wholly owned by the federal government, though expected to operate as a commercial enterprise. Typically, the owner was grateful for whatever QF was able to contribute to the coffers ... but, extremely reluctant to contribute capital to properly maintain it's investment! Hence, staff hire and capital expenditure 'freezes' were almost as common as 'Weeties' for breakfast. And, intermittent staff retrenchments are by no means a rarity in QF history.
All the same ... they seem to have dug a very big hole for themselves on this occasion and, whatever the outcome, some executive and board decisions should be closely examined to determine if they were justified in the light of world economic conditions since the GFC of 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment