I am sitting
in yet another airport lounge. This time it is a Qantas one in Melbourne,
Australia. I am waiting for the call to board my flight to Singapore. Another bloody
plane. This time I am flying back to where I live.
It is not my
home though.
I would prefer
to be sitting in the Singapore Airlines lounge that is next door to the Qantas
Club and I would prefer to be flying Singapore Airlines as well. I cherish my
PPS Kris frequent flyer points much more than their Qantas equivalent. I have
already explained why I am flying Qantas to Singapore in an earlier article so
I will not repeat myself.
I am only
going to write a short piece now here in the lounge as my brother Richard has
told me that he thinks that the articles that I am writing are now too long. He
told me he thought that I was waffling on a bit in my writing and he doesn't
like it. Out of respect for the brother that I love I am not going to write very
much from the Qantas lounge.
I am going to
keep it brief.
Qantas is the
national carrier for Australia and it was established in the year 1920 in a
paddock in the town of Milton in Queensland. It has been around for a long
time. Qantas claim that they started their commercial passenger services with
just one plane. I would have thought that many international airlines would
have started this way and perhaps most of them.
It is nothing
to really write home about.
Most people
outside of Australia would not know that Qantas is an acronym for the “Queensland
and Northern Territory Air Services”. Many Australians also might not know
this. I learnt it at school. The logo of Qantas in a flying kangaroo.
It is a red
one.
The Qantas
brand shot to some international fame in the 1980's when it was mentioned in
the film "Rain Man." "Rain Man" starred Dustin Hoffman and
a very young Tom Cruise. It may well have won an Academy Award or two and if it
didn’t it should have in my humble opinion. It was a very good film. Dustin
Hoffman played the part of an autistic character named Raymond and Tom Cruise
was Raymond's younger brother.
The character Raymond's
autism gave him an incredible ability of statistical recall and he was able to
do very large mathematical calculations instantly in his head. He was unable to
tie his own shoes though and had many quirky phobias. At one stage of the film
Raymond announced that he was afraid of flying because of a fear that the plane
would crash. Raymond also declared that Qantas were statistically the safest
airline in the world because Qantas planes had rarely crashed. I don’t
think any have crashed actually and to the best of my knowledge the airline is
fatality free. Their service sucks though and I much prefer to fly Singapore
Airlines whenever I can.
Like many of
the national and international airline carriers Qantas has been doing it tough
in recent times. They have battled for a diminishing number of airline
passengers during the global financial crises. There is a lot of competition
from budget airlines operating out of Asia for seats on the Australian route.
Singapore are a hub for many of these airlines and it is cheap and easy to fly
everywhere from there. I can attest to this. The Chief Executive officer of
Qantas is an Irishman named Alan Joyce. Like many of the Irish that I have met
and know, Alan Joyce appears feisty and gobby and smart.
He is a talker
and a fighter and as it turns out he is a bit of a fucker as well.
In October
2011 Alan Joyce bought the long fought battle between Qantas and a number of
Australian Trade Unions to a head. Qantas and their employees were in a
dispute over wages and productivity matters. There were many issues and demands
that were being made by the Trade Unions and the two parties were at
loggerheads. A number of Trade Unions were involved in this matter with Qantas
however it was being spearheaded by the powerful Transport Workers Union - the
TWU.
In October
2011 Mr. Joyce endeavored to escalate the dispute by canceling all Qantas
flights around the world. He did this suddenly and with little notice and the
cancellations lasted for more than twenty four hours. Passengers were stranded all
around the world.
I was appalled
by this move and I have tried not to fly Qantas since. As it turns out I have
been unsuccessful in this instance as I am about to board a Qantas flight.
However that is all I have to say on the matter at the moment because I have probably
already written too much and my brother wants me to write shorter articles.
He told me
that he doesn't like it when I waffle on for too long.
No comments :
Post a Comment