Qantas Airways : The Deepest Loss

On October 22nd, 2001, the Industrial dispute between QANTAS and its employees was initiated with the offering of a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. This proposed an 18-month wage freeze for employees plus a sliding scale profit share scheme. Ten out of twelve unions under QANTAS accepted the terms of the agreement, barring the unions of manufacturing employees (AWU and AMWU). They were holding out for a 4-6% pay rise. On the 8th May 2002, some ten months later, the dispute was resolved when QANTAS agreed to an across the board 6% pay increase. This essay provides an in-depth analysis into the dispute, including causes, the resolution process, the role of stakeholders, and costs and benefits for all concerned.

Maintain Qantas frequent flyer as a driver of loyalty across group and as a leading loyalty program.

The boards of directors are implicating new strategies to help Qantas renew in the post maturity stage. These strategies are:

Rivalry among industry competitors has caused attention to be focused on tariff levels. Airfare prices were at an all time low in 2009. This suggested a strong competitive rivalry based on price differentiation. This price differentiation will cause a dramatic loss in revenue if these prices continue to drop and this would lead to a reduced competitiveness. In an effort to safeguard revenue and reduce expenditure, Qantas has developed a strategy to deal with a change in the external competitive environment. .

This method involves selling products below production cost. This attracts customers to the business, who then purchase other products. Ultimately, this improves profits, brand loyalty, and market share. Qantas has used this strategy during the launch of its subsidiary, Jetstar, in 2006. For example, flights from Melbourne to Sydney was offered at $19. These low airfares attracted customers away from its competitors, such as Virgin Blue. This had seen

Qantas’ downfall in sales/gearing in 2009 due to the GFC. This year Qantas’ decided not to pay dividends and instead took the retained profits and spent the capital on new aircraft and renewal within the business in order to increase revenue.

Established in 1920, Qantas is the world's 11th largest airline and the 2nd oldest. It was founded in the Queensland outback as the Queensland and Northern territory Aerial Service (QANTAS) Limited, by pioneer aviators Hudson Fysh, Paul McGinness and Fergus McMaster. Qantas was a former government owned business; it did not view profits or efficiency as its prime goal. In 1993 a 25% stake was sold to British Airways. Qantas was privatised in 1995 and has had to adopt management practices to overcome both internal and external influences and had to change its narrow-minded culture. Although Qantas is primarily a passenger airline, air freight is also an integral part of its core business. Other Qantas

“The Customer Loyalty report clearly shows, membership in Classic Rewards is down nearly 20%” (UOP (A), 2012, p. 3). The same report also reflects members point redemption for flights down 20% from the previous year. Overall membership in the program fell by 10% between 2002 and 2004 with new membership falling nearly 75% in the same period. According to the monthly financials, operating expenses increased significantly from 2003 to 2004 reducing net income from $71 million in 2003 to $10 million in 2004. The review of these reports prompted the Board of Directors to set challenging goals to save the airline.

Founded in Queensland Australia in 1920, Qantas has now become Australia 's biggest name in relation to domestic and international airline. Originally registered as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS). Qantas is widely regarded as one of the world 's top airlines and one of the strongest brands in Australia. Over the years it has managed to build a reputation for excellence in

Provide full value of money for customers through reduce cost and enhance level of quality (Qantas Airways Limited, 2014).

The weakness of Qantas lies in the management and their lack of investment in their employees. The management weakness can be seen in many of the financial and operational issues. Qantas faces several Industrial disputes which the company’s competitors do not experience. These issues affect the interior structure and the external opportunities to gain new customers. This also makes this their biggest

Owned by parent company Qantas, the Jetstar Group is comprised of a network of value-based air carriers that deliver passenger services across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region (About Jetstar, 2012). The Jetstar Group's most recent five-year strategy has been to "turn the international business around [by] reducing investment in underperforming business areas and directing capital towards growth opportunities" (Qantas Reports Strong Full-Year Profit in Challenging Conditions, 2011). In addition, the Jetstar Group intends to "focus on improving the customer experience, develop a stronger and broader alliance

CNBC estimated that over 15 trillion frequent flyer miles were outstanding as of May 2011 (Whitman, 2011). Today, major U.S. airlines employ one of two methods to account for FFP liabilities for mileage credits earned by paying passengers: either the Deferred Revenue Method or the Incremental Cost Method. The Deferred Revenue Method recognizes a liability for the fair value of the outstanding mileage credits (with “fair value” defined under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as “the amount for which the award credits could be sold separately”) (KPMG, 2008). The Incremental Cost Method recognizes a liability for the marginal cost of providing air transportation to eligible award passengers (i.e. the cost of taxes, fuel, food, etc. to fly one additional passenger on a seat that otherwise would have been empty—generally a nominal amount). Incremental cost accounting has been subject to scrutiny several times throughout the history of FFPs. Within the past few years airlines have reduced seating capacity due to high fuel prices and weaker travel demand during the global economic recession, causing flights to be fuller on average and increasing the chance that, for any given seat, a passenger flying on redeemed frequent flyer miles could displace a fare-paying passenger (notwithstanding the fact that many airlines limit the number of seats eligible to be reserved using FFP

Through s Porters Five Forces analysis (Figure 1 – Appendices) the greatest threat for Qantas is the rivalry. Qantas is taking advantage of this opportunity as through the alliance it creates greater certainty for the shareholders while also being able to increase its numbers in international routes to 33 one-stop destinations in Europe in addition to 31 one-stop destinations in the Middle East and North Africa (Ryan, 2012). Additionally, as competition was putting pressure on the market while Qantas was restricted by financial reasons, this alliance came as a great opportunity. Furthermore, from 31st of March Qantas frequent flier point users were able to book Emirates flights while the customers’ high status with Qantas was recognized at Emirates as well. Lastly, on European, Asian and African destinations Qantas mirrored Emirates baggage policies (from 20kg to 30kg) (Panaus Travel, 2013).

Classic Airlines consists of 375 aircraft that travel to 240 cities more than 2300 times per day with a workforce of 32,000 personnel. Classic Airlines’ revenue was in excess of $8.7 billion last year bringing in a $10 million dollar profit and establishing the airline as the fifth largest air travel company in the world. Despite good sales and profits, Classic Airlines has been receiving harsh criticism from their customers resulting in a 10% decrease in profit shares, reduction in customer loyalty, 19% drop in rewards customers, 21% reduction in flights and the lowest morale seen in recent years. Classic Airlines remains optimistic about customer flight travel but must find