QANTAS: Headquarters Status Quo – QANTAS in Sydney, Jetstar in Melbourne

Qantas is very good at what it does. And that includes ‘negotiating’ concessions with governments.

Background

Last year in September, during the height of the COVID-19 related unemployment and travel industry downturn, Qantas announced that it was reviewing all of its property portfolios, and that might include moving its headquarters if the state governments’ financial offers/tax concessions supported it.

That’s sort of like an auction, or if it was regarded as a criminal act – it would be called ‘extortion’, but instead, it is regarded as a normal business transaction. Am I being too harsh? Qantas did have its back to the wall, with thousands of workers stood down, and losses of close to 3 billion.

Qantas issued a press release this morning announcing the completion of its property review. Basically, the status quo is preserved, with a bunch more concessions from the government, that is to say, funded by us the taxpayer – and we will never know how much we are paying because as the press release says:

‘The total value of these incentives will roll out over multiple years and will remain commercial in confidence.’

Or as the lovely Patrick Hatch in the SMH today puts it:

Qantas will keep its head office in Sydney and its budget arm Jetstar based in Melbourne after extracting tax waivers and other subsidies from governments desperate to keep jobs in their states.

Patrick Hatch, Sydney Morning Herald

Knock me over with a feather!

Summary

• Global headquarters, with 3500+ employees, stay at Mascot in Sydney
• New Flight Training Centre with aircraft simulators in NSW from 2023
• Qantas Loyalty stays Mascot.
• Work with the NSW Government on Indigenous and diversity employment program (shameful that they don’t have one already!)
• Sydney will be the launch city for Project Sunrise flights (non-stop to cities including New York and London) but with the codicil that international travel recovers and the project go-ahead
• Heavy maintenance stays in Brisbane
• Jetstar relocates some heavy maintenance (Airbus A320 fleet) from Singapore to Brisbane as a trial in 2021 (no promises after that)
• Discussions with QLD Government about maintenance in Cairns with an existing supplier
• New Flight Training Centre is being built at Brisbane Airport with pilot training to start in November 2021.
• Discussions with QLD Government about basing some Embraer E190 jets in Townsville with Alliance Airlines.
• Jetstar’s headquarters with 750+ employees stay in Melbourne. It’s expected to grow and may move from Collingwood.
• Melbourne along with Melbourne Airport gets maintenance engineering along with Jetstar expanded heavy maintenance
• Flight Training Centre expanded in Melbourne.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.