Thread: Problems with QANTAS ?

Originally Posted by weeds

On domestic flights I’ve never really experienced attitude from cabin crew....my works preferred carrier is Virgin so cannot comment on Qantas

I always watch and listen to the safety message, often get a nod of appreciation as most passengers don’t even look in the general direction

Flights up and down the east coast I don’t bother the girls at all, pretty easy to sit out 2hrs

- I always sit in the window seat, jam myself in the corner and don noise canceling headphones
- I don’t take the offer of meals/food or drinks
- I take my bottled water on with me
- I go to the loo before boring, one less thing to worry about mid flight
- either have a feed before take off or when I land.

Be interested what attitude people get....

One good thing is I’ve dropped from gold to silver which means I haven’t been flying as much this year.

Have even found alliance to be good even though they are a contracted carrier for Virgin

Cabin crew have always been good to me also.
I've always tried to be kind to the cabin crew and always make a point of saying hello and thank you. They have a hard enough time dealing with mierable beings on the plane, at least I can be one who is nice to them.

Originally Posted by Hugh Jars

Yes, all airlines are short of crew. With domestic flights it’s easier to reassign crew within flight and duty time limits and cover with reserve crew (if there are any). Once reserve coverage is depleted, crewing then starts texting and cold-calling crew on days off.
With international (particularly long haul flying) you don’t really have the option to reassign, as existing crews are usually rostered close to maximum legal flight and duty times anyway.

The key is adequate reserve coverage. With less pilots than optimum, fewer pilots will be on reserve, hence the problem. All that’s left is the goodwill of crew that are prepared to work on their days off. And that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Most airlines are experiencing this problem at the moment.

Hey Hugh Jars........

What are the airlines doing to increase the number of pilots? I understand that into the future pilots has been flagged as a major growth area but it appears to me to be a difficult occupation to get into unless you're very lucky.

From what I could see, to be a pilot, there are some paid training positions with the major airlines, but either you go into the airlines own training schools for 9mths-1yr and pay your way through to work with that company, or you go via the various privte training schools and then probably have to be trained by commercial operators anyway.

To me at least, it seems that for most people, they will need a lot of money behind them to get into the job, something that most who are self sufficient wont have until they're settled into their carrer.

Is this a problem that has changed now?

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Thats a big loss for Dubbo. I think Orange may now have a Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne services if its any help. A long drive to the airport!

News this morning another outfit is "in talks" to start a Gold Coast - Dubbo - Melbourne service. No indication of when it could start.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

News this morning another outfit is "in talks" to start a Gold Coast - Dubbo - Melbourne service. No indication of when it could start.

"In talks" usually means "can we get the taxpayers to subsidise this?"

I have two acquaintances in a similar position to the air pilots mentioned in an earlier post. They are system and process operators at an American owned company. The minimum education required to start training is a trade certificate or technician diploma, A science degree is preferred. Lots of overtime is worked. Average work week is 60 hours. One of the guys if 58 and has advanced plans to retire at 60 and finds the long hours tiring and irksome. He has been refusing overtime as much as possible which annoys his supervisors and has been reprimanded. He turns his cell 'phone off when he leaves the job and does not answer his home 'phone. His wife and daughter answer the 'phone and give an unrecognised caller the third degree, "Who, what about, not home, don't know when, leave a message." The other guy is mid 40's and financially comfortable (single, owns home), doesn't mind the o/t money but would like less hours so he has time off to spend it. The operational problem is mainly caused by the imposed "head count" which is totally inflexible, graven in stone and sent down from Mt. Sinai(New York). No more staff, work overtime is the command from on high.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Hey Hugh Jars........

What are the airlines doing to increase the number of pilots? I understand that into the future pilots has been flagged as a major growth area but it appears to me to be a difficult occupation to get into unless you're very lucky.

From what I could see, to be a pilot, there are some paid training positions with the major airlines, but either you go into the airlines own training schools for 9mths-1yr and pay your way through to work with that company, or you go via the various privte training schools and then probably have to be trained by commercial operators anyway.

To me at least, it seems that for most people, they will need a lot of money behind them to get into the job, something that most who are self sufficient wont have until they're settled into their carrer.

Is this a problem that has changed now?

Hi Slunnie,
You’re right about the potential monetary outlay to get qualified (no job guaranteed). For me to get qualified cost just under $30k in 1980’s dollars. I was self-funded, and it took me quite a few years of saving and hard work to get there. That also put me into the upper age range for an airline career (yes, they did discriminate on age - ‘experience commensurate with age’ was the catch cry).

Nowadays, you have 3 ways of getting qualified:
1. Military;
2. Cadetship (or partial cadetship);
3. Fully self funded.

Like any profession, just because you are qualified doesn’t necessarily mean you meet a particular company’s requirements for a suitable employee (a lot of pilots are somewhat deluded in this area)

If I were doing it again, I would try to do it in the above order. IMO, there’s no better time to get into the industry. Until the shortage really struck home, airlines drew the majority of their pilots from general aviation and the military. General aviation in Australia has been in steady decline for over a decade, so the pool of pilots entering the industry is shrinking. Airlines are typically reactive with resource planning and are reluctant to invest in training new pilots. That attitude has turned around and bitten them on the bum.
So we have the scenario of ‘we need pilots now’, but needing a 12+ month lead time to train from zero hours to Commercial pilots licence. Then several months transition training before being a productive line pilot. I recently completed promotional training, and this took just under 6 months (after 25 years in airlines). So you can appreciate the lead times required to train people.
The cadet scheme can reduce the financial shock somewhat, but is extremely competitive. The current ratio is approx 85 applicants per vacancy. The disadvantage is that currently there are no schools in Australia with the capability to train the numbers airlines have finally worked out they need. Hence QF creating its own school. That in itself requires over a year to get running, and still they will need instructors to train their cadets... a bit of a vicious circle.
As for the military, I imagine the ratio of applicants would be significantly higher than those for airline cadet placings.

The above info is my current take on the industry. (I was a pilot recruiter for 8 years).

Regards

Qantas have even paired up with Massey University in NZ to train pilots....

Qantas partnership gives Massey University School of Aviation students a flying start | Stuff.co.nz

Airlines struggle with global pilot shortage | Reuters

This sort of explains some of it.