[COM] Adelaide Airport T1 Terminal | $260m

[Norman]

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0 ... 62,00.html

Fuel costs force 1500 Qantas, Jetstar jobs to goBy Mark Schliebs and wires
July 18, 2008 11:55am

[*]1500 jobs axed, some compulsory redundancies
[*]Plans to hire another 1200 staff scrapped
[*]LIVE latest: NEWS.com.au instant coverage

WORRIED Qantas and Jetstar workers are waiting to hear exactly where the job axe will fall after the carrier said today it would dump 1500 staff and scrap plans to take on another 1200 workers.

The Australian Services Union (ASU), which represents workers across various Qantas divisions, said its members were anxious to find out if they would be forced out.

ASU assistant national secretary Linda White said she spoke with Qantas officials shortly after the announcement was made, but "as it stands now, I can’t give any comfort to our members”.

“Everyone thinks they’re under the gun.”

One Jetstar worker, Carrie, has written to NEWS.com.au's live blog to say her job was definitely one of those to be cut.

"My fellow colleagues are in complete shock," she said.

Join our live blog by clicking here. (Blog window will pop up.)

The ASU's Ms White said Qantas had emailed staff a short memo about the cuts, but: “There are areas (in Qantas) that are already under significant strain because of understaffing.”

The email said: “This will be a stressful period for many and every effort will be made to handle all issues with consideration and care.

“Communication with each business segment will commence next week. We will keep you fully informed as the changes are implemented.”

Qantas blamed skyrocketing fuel costs as it announced the job losses this morning.

A freeze on executive pay would also continue, and it would retire 22 older aircraft from its fleet of 228, it said.

Chief executive Geoff Dixon said the aviation industry was facing a major crisis and Qantas needed to ensure its future.


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At a glance - Where the Qantas jobs will be lost
Next step - Passengers warned of higher fares
Picture flashback - Aviation history, the Kangaroo Route
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"The jobs to be cut will be principally concentrated in non-operational areas, although operational positions will also go," he said in Sydney.

"Over 20 per cent of our management and head office support jobs will be cut."

Mr Dixon said there would be compulsory redundancies, as well as voluntary redundancies, early retirements, leave without pay, an accelerated leave program and full time jobs moved to part-time.


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Is your job on the line? Do you know more? Email us at [email protected] with reports, tip-offs, and pictures or SMS to 0429 300 245
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"Some compulsory redundancies will be necessary, which we regret," he said.

"The redundancy program will be completed by December."

Mr Dixon said most of the 1500 jobs lost would be in Australia, with 150 or 200 from the airline's overseas operations.

He also flagged his own departure from the airline next year, perhaps at the half year results announcement.

"But that's up to the board, not me," he added.

Qantas said nearly 100 jobs would be lost with the closure of call centres in Tucson and London and call centre activity would be concentrated in Australia and New Zealand, the company said.

It would also close its Jetstar cabin crew base in Adelaide in August and suspend its Jetstar recruitment program until the end of the year.

The moves were revealed as the company said it had cut its expected capacity growth forecast from 8 per cent to zero.

Qantas joins airlines worldwide struggling to control fuel costs spiralling out of control with the jump in crude oil prices in recent months.

Qantas shares rose marginally today, up one cent to $3.31 at 12.21pm (AEST).

"Acting now, on top of the measures already taken, will protect our competitive position, protect the great majority of over 36,000 jobs and enable us to grow profitably when conditions improve," Mr Dixon said.

Fuel accounts for about 35 per cent of the airline's expenses - a cost set to increase by more than $2 billion in 2008/09.

Crude oil, from which jet fuel is derived, has been trading about $US140 a barrel recently, but overnight it subsided to around $US130, amid concerns about a slowing US economy.

Mr Dixon said Qantas was very conscious of the important role it played in business and tourism in Australia.

"This was uppermost in our mind when reviewing all aspects of our operations in recent weeks," he said.

"And, as a result, the latest schedule changes mostly involve a reduction of capacity on some routes and not the wholesale elimination of routes."

Mr Dixon said Qantas would proceed with already announced new direct services between Sydney and Buenos Aires in November.

Mr Dixon said Qantas was confident of being able to survive the aviation crisis, as it had in the past.

"We are confident of doing the same again," he said.

The airline will go ahead with a major fleet re-equipment program of new and more fuel-efficient aircraft such as the A380 and B787.

With AAP

[SRW]

Qantas cuts 1,500 jobs
ABC News Online

Qantas has announced it will be cutting 1,500 jobs worldwide and will cancel plans to hire 1,200 new employees this financial year.

Around 1,200 of the axed jobs will be in Australia, while the other 300 will come from the airline's worldwide operations.

Chief executive Geoff Dixon has blamed the job cuts on the the surging price of oil and the airline's pay dispute with its maintenance engineers.

Mr Dixon says every effort will be made to achieve the cuts through voluntary redundancies, early retirement, leave without pay and by converting some full-time positions to part time.

But he says there will have to be some compulsory redundancies.

"The jobs to be cut will be principally concentrated in non-operational areas, although operational positions will also go," he said.

"Over 20 per cent of our management and head office support jobs will be cut."

Mr Dixon says the redundancies will be made by December.

Mr Dixon also says Qantas is concerned by the Federal Government's emissions trading policy, which he says has unfairly singled out the aviation industry.

"Domestic aviation, including regional aviation, will be quite severely affected.

"We can't absorb a $100 million cost, which is the price analysts are saying would be for Qantas. We would have to put that cost back onto our domestic operations.

"I believe that will make domestic aviation much dearer and may well have an impact on domestic tourism.

"We will be making that very claim to the Government and I think that could have a bigger effect than what we're doing here now."

Up to 200 call centre jobs in the United States and Britain will also be axed, with call centre activity to be concentrated in Australia and New Zealand.

Qantas is abandoning plans to increase its capacity by 8 per cent this financial year, with no growth now expected.

The airline will also continue to look at reducing capacity on some routes, rather than the wholesale elimination of regional, domestic and international routes.

'Strong profit'

Mr Dixon says workers understand the measures are necessary because of soaring oil costs and worsening global economic conditions.

"We'll have a very strong profit, which I think most people know for last year," he said.

"But we have indicated at these prices for oil, and indeed the fact that oil is slowing economic growth a bit, that we have to make changes."

However, the Transport Workers Union says Qantas is shedding the jobs to cut costs, not because of the increasing price of fuel.

Spokesman Scott Connolly says workers should be treated better.

"This is a disappointing announcement to a workforce that year in, year out, has delivered record profits, is on track this year to again deliver profits in excess of $1 billion," he said.

"We believe that the workers who continually deliver these outcomes at Qantas deserve much more from the management team than they're getting."

The airline will retire up to 22 older aircraft from its fleet of 228, close Jetstar's cabin crew and pilot base in Adelaide by the end of August and suspend Jetstar's recruitment program until the end of the financial year.

Mr Dixon says he hopes the introduction of the new, more fuel efficient A380 and B787 aircraft will help cut costs.

'No surprise'

Comsec Equities economist Savanth Sebastian says the move was not unexpected.

"The cost of jet fuel has jumped 60 per cent since the start of the year," he said.

"The airline sector is suffering, profits are dwindling. Cost cutting has become a favourite at the moment and wages make up a large amount of costs."

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia says it expects any job losses amongst its 4,000 international cabin crew will be voluntary.

But Association secretary Michael Mijatov says he is still waiting for more details.

"I am absolutely confident that in terms of our members, they'll be no compulsory redundancy. It'll be a matter of voluntary redundancy," he said.

The Australian Federation of Air Pilots says the main impact on its members will be a slowdown in recruitment.

But the Federation's manager of industrial relations, Lawrie Cox, says pilots and other staff will have to move from Adelaide.

"We've been advised that the Adelaide base of Jetstar will be closing and the pilots will be redeployed into other bases and the aircraft will be based in Melbourne and Sydney," he said.

"Effectively there's been no direct impact on our members at this point other than that closuse obviously which we are disappointed about, but that is aviation unfortunately."

At about 11:00am AEST, Qantas shares were up 1.5 per cent, climbing climbed 5 cents to $3.35 in a market that is weaker overall.

The pilots won't lose their jobs, but we will lose them to the east coast, which is still a bad thing. I think Qantas has been a little too earnest in its cost-cutting.

[bm7500]

OPEC has a lot to answer for. It is basically holding the world to ransom

[urban]

OPEC has a lot to answer for. It is basically holding the world to ransom

Yeah it's all their fault the world is hooked on a finite unsustainable resource.

[Jim]

OPEC has a lot to answer for. It is basically holding the world to ransom

We have a lot to answer for in squandering our oil reserves and not starting the electric car revolution 10-15 years ago. But it’s always easier to blame others. Basically we are using the stuff up quicker than we are discovering it. For every 9 barrels we use we only discover one.:

[Norman]

Tiger Airways to make Adelaide its second base

SOUTH Australians will be able to access more direct flights after low-cost airline Tiger Airways announced Adelaide would be its second home base.

The airline, which is based in Melbourne, will initially base two of its new A319s in Adelaide with corresponding crews and support staff from January.

It is still considering which routes to fly to from SA.

Tiger Airways, famous for airfares as low as $9.95, said customers could vote on their favourite destinations from Adelaide by logging on to its website.

It predicts the addition of its second base would almost double the number of annual low fare seats being made available in Australia to more than three million a year.

Tiger Airways Australia managing director Shelley Roberts said the additional capacity would mean South Australians would "no longer be forced to pay the high fares of the incumbent airlines and will benefit not only from Tiger's low fares but also from more choice in terms of destinations".

"Once again the South Australian government and Adelaide Airport have shown that they understand the benefits of true low fare aviation competition to the tourism industry as well as the winder state economy," she said.

"I strongly recommend South Australia to those businesses looking to grow and we look forward to building a long term and robust relationship with our new customers in SA."

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

[crawf]

Fantastic!, great news for SA Tourism

[bm7500]

OPEC has a lot to answer for. It is basically holding the world to ransom

Yeah it's all their fault the world is hooked on a finite unsustainable resource.

by Jim on Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:07 pm

bm7500 wrote:
OPEC has a lot to answer for. It is basically holding the world to ransom

We have a lot to answer for in squandering our oil reserves and not starting the electric car revolution 10-15 years ago. But it’s always easier to blame others. Basically we are using the stuff up quicker than we are discovering it. For every 9 barrels we use we only discover one.:

And do you guys think that OPEC are completley blameless for us 'enjoying' the highest fuel prices in history? Im not saying that we couldnt have done any more but history has shown that both newer more fuel efficient technology and non oil dependant technology has been bought up by the oil companies and then shelved. Take the Orbital Engine as just one example.... Anyway, now im going OT

[Wayno]

hopefully Tiger will offer cheap direct flights to Singapore!

[bm7500]

Tiger Airways to make Adelaide its second base

SOUTH Australians will be able to access more direct flights after low-cost airline Tiger Airways announced Adelaide would be its second home base.

The airline, which is based in Melbourne, will initially base two of its new A319s in Adelaide with corresponding crews and support staff from January.

It is still considering which routes to fly to from SA.

Tiger Airways, famous for airfares as low as $9.95, said customers could vote on their favourite destinations from Adelaide by logging on to its website.

It predicts the addition of its second base would almost double the number of annual low fare seats being made available in Australia to more than three million a year.

Tiger Airways Australia managing director Shelley Roberts said the additional capacity would mean South Australians would "no longer be forced to pay the high fares of the incumbent airlines and will benefit not only from Tiger's low fares but also from more choice in terms of destinations".

"Once again the South Australian government and Adelaide Airport have shown that they understand the benefits of true low fare aviation competition to the tourism industry as well as the winder state economy," she said.

"I strongly recommend South Australia to those businesses looking to grow and we look forward to building a long term and robust relationship with our new customers in SA."

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

Great news for Adelaide! Will be good to see a new aircraft type in Australia, especially when it is based here.

Also hope that some of the Jetstar crew that were layed off the other day get picked up by Tiger!

[jlimty]

hopefully Tiger will offer cheap direct flights to Singapore!

I was going to vote for Singapore/Anywhere-in-SE-Asia for the preffered destination on the Tiger website but the only options are interstate destinations

[Splashmo]

This is good news. Interestingly you can vote for regional destinations like Ceduna, Port Lincoln and Mount Gambier.

[crawf]

And Broken Hill & Whyalla

I voted Darwin, Mildura and Brisbane

[bm7500]

And Broken Hill & Whyalla

I voted Darwin, Mildura and Brisbane

Even KI gets a mention!

I voted Darwin, Perth & Brisbane.

[canopy]

I vote for perth and melbourne