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Qantas
- IATA/ICAO code
- QF/QFA
- Type of airline
- Full service provider
- interface(s)
- Brisbane Airport, Melbourne Airport, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport
- The year it was founded
- In 1920
- Union
- One world
- General manager
- Alan Joyce
- Country
- Australia
Australian airline Qantas is making good practice of apologizing for its customer service and operational woes, the airline’s top executive has reiterated his apologies for the airline’s repeated shortcomings. For the second time in a week, Qantas domestic and international chief executive Andrew David has appeared in media interviews to apologize and explain what is happening at Qantas.
Qantas failed to meet passenger expectations
Qantas is in the news for all the wrong reasons these days. To be fair, most delays, cancellations, and customer service disasters aren’t the airline’s fault, but many are. With the airline positioning itself as a premium carrier and charging accordingly, Australians say Qantas’s forgiving low-cost rock-bottom ticket price is much lower.
Earlier this week, local media reported images and footage of passenger queues stretching outside terminal doors at key Australian airports. Last month, only 58.7% of Qantas domestic flights departed on time and 59.4% arrived on time. 1,500 Qantas domestic flights were canceled during the month.
Another Qantas apology
Wait times to speak to the notorious Qantas call centers (mostly outsourced and offshore) are blowing again. Baggers are going AWOL, and flight engineers, ground controllers, and caterers (the latter two groups have almost all been outsourced) are all threatening to strike.
“I apologize to all of your listeners.” Mr David told Sydney radio station 2GB this week.We are a national carrier, people have expectations of us, we have high expectations of ourselves and obviously in the last few months we have not been delivering what we did before covid.
Mr David seems to have drawn the short straw on Qantas at the moment. Other executives, including group chief executive Alan Joyce, are downplayed. At the same time, Mr. David published an apology op-ed, went on breakfast TV, and this week had to go on talk radio to apologize.
Ongoing customer service and reliability problems are tarnishing Qantas’ self-styled image as Australia’s premium airline. Photo: Getty Images
Power cuts are down
Andrew David says Qantas is doing a lot to address its own shortcomings, including cutting domestic capacity to ease operational reliability. That’s not new news – Qantas has already said it will reduce domestic capacity during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Most of the capacity reductions have come from cutting services on high-frequency routes such as Sydney (SYD) – Melbourne (MEL) and Sydney – Brisbane. But around Qantas’ domestic network, routes are quietly disappearing from the map, including Mount Gambier (MGB) – Melbourne, Alice Springs (ASP) – Perth (PER) and Wag Wag (WGA) – Melbourne.
“We have reduced some of our flights this month, and recognizing the operational pressures we have, we plan to do the same next month.” Mr. David said 2 GB.
Bad weather on Australia’s east coast, staff shortages at airports and contractors, and equipment technology at airports are beyond Qantas’ control but also contribute to the airline’s problems. And Qantas isn’t the only airline facing challenges, but having long established itself as the guardian of airline excellence, Qantas finds itself under intense scrutiny.
“It’s a harsh reality facing airlines, airports, air traffic control agencies and all businesses in Australia and around the world.” In a July 17 op-ed, Mr. David wrote about state-of-the-art airports and airlines around the world. As with recent travel peaks in Australia, airlines and airports in Europe, the US and the UK are dealing with the worst impacts.
“There will be a few more bumps in the road as Covid and flu continue, but flying will be as smooth as ever in the coming weeks and months.”
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