Qantas grounds entire fleet

[fishlips]

QANTAS chief Alan Joyce has grounded all Qantas flights immediately and blames ongoing union action for his decision.
In an announcement beamed live across Australia Mr Joyce said unions were "deliberately destabilising our company" and that the airline could not afford the ongoing actions.

The escalation of the dispute came as Qantas shareholders gave Mr Joyce's $5 million pay packet of their tick of approval.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-n ... 6180030416

[MIKE JG]

Didn't Air France go on strike today as well??

[fishlips]

Qantas ground staff and pilots are not on strike! That is total and utter bullshit.

In the past 12 months Qantas workers have only stopped work for a total time of 6 hours, and pilots have not stopped work at all. Qantas have locked workers out so as to wreck havoc on the share price of the company and make it easier for International Airlines to buy Qantas out. This is some thing that the Australian Government have so far refused the sale of the company to foreign ownership such as Sinapore Airlines.

[1st Shirt]

It's union busting run amuck, only in this case it may be Qantas that goes bust

[Firebird]

... and make it easier for International Airlines to buy Qantas out.

I haven't heard this rumour at all. It is a logical guess, but that is all as far as I know. The big rumour about the next airline for IAG is BMI, Luftie have been trying to flog them for a while now.

[fishlips]

Not a rumour! When Singapore Airlines was turned down by the Aussie Government regulator they tried using New Zealand Airlines, of course they were awake to that also. Personally I don't fly with Qantas, they are expensive and have lousy inflight service. I'd be happy to see them go overseas, that way the Qantas strong hold in Australian domestic flights would be shattered as other opperators come to the market.
People rave about Qantas safety record, how safe do they think the aircraft will be when there serviced in Asia by people who can barely read English and are paid peanuts.

[Firebird]

IAG are looking for other airlines but no rumours from inside the org about particular airlines. Of course BA has had links for a couple of decades with QANTAS and AA and these are logical long term targets.