The book that predicted it all ... The Men Who Killed QANTAS

Qantas is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. But the foundation for the grounding of the entire Qantas fleet for the first time in the airline’s history was laid years ago. It will have come as no surprise to people who have read The Men Who Killed Qantas.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce came from a cut price airline background. He was cultivated as Geoff Dixon’s natural successor and the ideal candidate to see the work Dixon began through to fruition. Let us not forget that Dixon was the main cheerleader for an $11 billion debt-fuelled buyout in 2006 that would have put Qantas to the wall when the GFC hit. Thankfully the shareholders stymied the deal.

When the board backed Alan Joyce for the top job over 36 year Qantas veteran John Borghetti it was effectively backing Dixon’s vision that had already begun with the use of cut price flight attendants from Thailand and New Zealand. Today there is a strong question mark over whether the airline picked the right man. Borghetti has gone on to take the helm of Virgin Australia, which is quickly filling the gap Qantas has left for a quality airline the nation can be proud of.

Qantas is locked in a battle to the death with its own workforce. Joyce clearly believes the only way forward is to base the workforce offshore to lower costs – Australian jobs will be lost but Qantas will be able to compete on the same playing field as rivals such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Such a strategy comes with a massive cost. When a Rolls Royce engine on flight QF 32 exploded over Singapore on the eve of the airline’s 90^th anniversary it was the quick thinking of the pilot that saved the lives of the 440 passengers on board. Seasoned pilot Richard Champion De Crespigny overrode the new Airbus A380s computers to safely land the plane. Alan Joyce hailed him a hero. But all that is forgotten in the race to cut costs and put cheaper crews in the cockpit of Australian planes. Ask any passenger and there is no question that they want a well paid, seasoned Qantas veteran in the cockpit when things go pear shaped.

Qantas is more than a business. It is The Australian airline, with a long and proud history. Founder Hudson Fysh was a committed champion of pilots in the mould of Richard De Crespigny. What would Fysh have thought of the grounding of the fleet and the moves to send the workforce offshore simply to cut costs?

Matthew Benns is a freelance journalist and the author of THE MEN WHO KILLED QANTAS, which was published in June 2011.