Although tightly linked to each other, airlines and the aircraft manufacturing industry don’t generally seem to be heading in the same direction.
Flickr/FreeFoto
A few months ago I was invited to a small gathering organised by executives from a large international airline (one you most certainly have heard of). About a dozen of us were there and the mix was varied…
While airlines struggle to mitigate costs of operation, frequent flyer programs have become lucrative businesses in their own right.
AAP/Dan Peled
Frequent flyer programs have long since expanded out of their airlines, with points now being exchanged across supermarkets, banks and insurance companies.
Australia has two domestically owned frequent…
An alliance with China Eastern Airlines could provide Qantas with a solid growth strategy.
AAP
It’s been a tough year for Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.
Last year’s announcement of the airline’s first loss since privatisation, a new partnership with Emirates and the collapse of joint venture negotiations…
US regulators have grounded all 787 Dreamliners until a battery fire risk is fully assessed and fixed.
Flickr: Drewski2112
This week, US civil aviation safety regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took the massive step of grounding all US Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Its equivalent European counterpart, the European…
The same day tourism professionals gathered to hear a glowing report from Tourism Australia, Qantas dumped its promotional sponsorship with the national body.
One week ago, two very different groups gathered in two different cities to talk about tourism.
In Sydney, more than 250 industry professionals were being briefed by Tourism Australia chief Andrew McEvoy…
Previously close, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Tourism Australia chairman Geoff Dixon are now at loggerheads after Joyce withdrew $44 million funding from TA. But Joyce is determined his positioning strategy for Qantas won’t be disrupted.
AAP
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is a master of brinkmanship. The withdrawal of $44 million of marketing support to Tourism Australia based on the perception of a conflict of interest with the board chairman, Geoff…
Alan Joyce (left) and former Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon in less turbulent times.
The flying kangaroo might have lost its bounce, but it seems to be heading into another bumpy ride. The latest episode in the saga involves the old guard of Qantas, comprised of former chief Geoff Dixon…
Virgin Australia has announced a series of deals that will see it take a controlling stake in low cost carrier Tiger Airways.
Virgin Australia has announced a series of deals which will see it sell a 10% stake to Singapore Airlines, gain a 60% share in low-cost carrier Tiger Airways Australia and challenge the dominance of Qantas…
Will the Qantas-Emirates alliance restore the beleaguered Australian airline back to profitability?
AAP
Today, Alan Joyce has announced that Qantas and Emirates have struck a joint venture alliance for the next 10 years.
As a result, Qantas will be taking its passengers to Europe through Dubai, instead…
Qantas has shocked the market with a 90% profit downgrade, causing shares to plunge to their lowest point since privatisation.
Tony Webber, formerly the Qantas chief economist and now Associate Professor…
Qantas will split its international and domestic operations.
AAP
Qantas has announced it is splitting its loss-making international business from domestic operations, as part of a five year turn-around plan announced last August.
The two companies will have separate…
Stuck in Botany Bay: Greenpeace activists celebrate the Danish government’s decision to halt Orica’s plans to ship toxic waste to Denmark.
AAP
Are sustainability-dependent executive bonuses the answer to saving the planet? Research recently conducted by the Centre for Corporate Governance at the University of Technology, Sydney, examined whether…
Stranded international passengers struggle to get home as Air Australia collapses.
AAP
As stranded Air Australia customers continued to scramble to get home over the weekend, many may well be asking themselves: who’d run an airline?
On Friday, just a day after Qantas announced 500 job cuts…
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce’s announced job cuts again places him in conflict with unions.
AAP
Plans announced by Qantas to cut 500 jobs have been greeted with dismay by unions, who have warned they will hold chief executive Alan Joyce to his promise that maintenance jobs will not go overseas…
Senator Xenophon’s proposals for the Qantas Sale Act won’t fly with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who says the effects could be detrimental for the beleaguered airline.
AAP
Senator Nick Xenophon’s call for change to the Qantas Sale Act has made headlines across the world this week. He has challenged the Senate committee to support amendments to the Act that would require…
Qantas has cited the carbon price and high oil costs for a price hike – but aviation pricing isn’t straightforward.
AAP
Qantas and its low cost carrier division Jetstar have announced they will increase domestic and international airfares in stages from February through to July 1. The justification is a combination of increasing…
An early agreement with at least one Qantas union has been reached despite strong rhetoric on both sides.
AAP
Qantas management has made an early agreement with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) in a deal that reflects compromise by both parties, despite earlier strong rhetoric from…
Dissatisfaction over the recent shutdown by Qantas surprisingly may not affect loyalty.
AAP
Is it the comfort of the seats, the high standard of the food or the friendliness of the cabin crew that has us using the same airline time after time?
According to recent research we conducted at the…
International examples show that quicker access to arbitration could have avoided the drastic action taken by Qantas chief Alan Joyce.
AAP
As the Qantas dispute moves into the arbitration phase in Fair Work Australia (FWA), it is timely to consider whether the tests for access to arbitration under the Fair Work Act need refining.
Prompted…
A fun competition, an angry public – what could possibly go wrong?
Qantas via Twitter
By now, most people will have heard of the social media disaster which even provided its own hashtag: #QantasLuxury. Ironically, this was everything but a luxury for Qantas.
What it did illustrate was…
Will arbitration by Fair Work Australia provide the outcome Qantas chief Alan Joyce wants? Not necessarily.
AAP
Memo to the Qantas public relations team: if you mount a Twitter campaign calling for travellers' luxury flying experiences in the middle of an unresolved industrial dispute, be aware there might be a…
After 20 years of enterprise bargaining, are we seeing an unintended return to compulsory arbitration?
AAP
With the threat of further industrial action at Qantas looming and Victorian nurses continuing with their rolling work bans, you could be forgiven for thinking that Australia has entered a new phase of…
Alan Joyce walked with staff in August – but what will win them back now?
AAP
It is possible to rebuild relations after major disputes. British Airways is currently trying to do just that after a long industrial-relations dispute with many of its flight attendants.
Qantas’s CEO…
An adversarial approach is not the only – or even the best – way to resolve the Qantas dispute.
AAP
Nearly all of the analysis and critique of the Qantas saga since the grounding has turned on the designs of principal players, their behaviours in the moment and the vagaries of the Fair Work Act.
It…
There is more behind the Qantas lockout than short-term industrial disputes.
AAP
As the initial shock of the Qantas lockout of its workforce abates, it is time to consider the wider implications of this action.
One lesson is the folly of national identification of companies that are…
Australia needs to have a serious and healthy debate on what the “Australian made” brand represents.
iStockphoto/Hamza Bendemra
Reports suggesting Holden is considering phasing out major parts of the manufacturing chain for the iconic Commodore points to a worrying trend of off-shoring the very skills manufacturing needs in order…
More turmoil, not closure, is likely to be ahead of Qantas following last week’s industrial action.
AAP
Following on from Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s controversial decision to lock out staff and ground the entire fleet, there has been a flurry of writing – in The Conversation and across the world – on the rights…
In debate over the Qantas IR dispute, the truth of the Fair Work Act is the elephant in the room.
AAP
The drawn-out dispute between Qantas and unions that led to the airline’s entire fleet being grounded over the weekend has sparked calls for reform of Australia’s industrial relations laws.
Business leaders…
Qantas will now have to work very hard to persuade people to trust their brand again.
AAP
In 2011, brand is everything in the corporate world.
While the rest of the business operations are considered a cost, marketing makes money.
And central to so much of modern marketing is the brand, built…
Qantas flights are back in the air after Fair Work Australia ordered the termination of industrial action.
AAP
The Fair Work Australia (FWA) decision on the Qantas industrial dispute makes it clear the action by the three unions was not enough to trigger a decision by FWA to terminate the bargaining periods.
A…
FWA used legislation enacted in 1993 to protect the economy from protracted industrial action.
AAP
Read the Fair Work Australia decision here
Read Roy Green, Dean of UTS Business School: Planes set to fly again – but what now for Qantas?
Read our previous coverage here
The decision by Fair Work…
Qantas management have taken a risky approach to end their dispute with unions.
AFP/William West
Qantas planes are set to return to the air today after Fairwork Australia ruled to terminate an industrial dispute that grounded the airline over the weekend.
The extraordinary action on Saturday by…
Staff are due to be locked out by Qantas management at 8pm on Monday.
The stakes are high for both the union movement and Qantas, as a Fairwork Australia hearing aimed at ending the industrial crisis which has grounded Qantas planes continues this evening.
Qantas wants…
Two strikes – a term borrowed from baseball, now being applied to Australian executive pay.
EPA/Arleen Ng
Australia’s new “two strikes” law giving shareholders more power to curb excessive executive pay packets, promises to shake up some businesses.
Homewares company GUD Holdings has already been hit with…
Qantas chief Alan Joyce is facing a lot of obstacles.
AAP
Stopwork action, accusations of leaks, cancelled flights, even calls for the Federal Government to intervene: it seems the bad news for Qantas never ends.
Greg Bamber, Professor in the Department of Management…
Qantas: in danger of squandering good will for the bottom line?
AAP
For the marketer, as it is for the human being, your greatest strength is always your greatest weakness.
Qantas is the quintessential Australian airline – more than an airline, in fact. It has become…
Qantas has announced a sweeping review of its business that will include a new Asian premium airline, a new Japan-based low-cost carrier, a fleet overhaul and up to 1,000 job losses.
Under the plans…
Tiger’s low-cost model just hasn’t worked in Australia.
AAP
The grounding of Tiger Airways over the weekend underlines the difficulties of the airline business.
The global airline industry has consistently failed to generate an adequate return on capital, even…
Tiger Airways needs to better understand the maturity of the Australian aviation market.
AAP
Tiger Airways chief Tony Davis' decision to sell 1 million of his own shares in the company last week didn’t send the best message about his prognosis for the budget airline’s future in Australia.
While…
