Qantas continues its attempts to become more competitive in a very tough global market.

 
The company recently announced the axing of up to 500 heavy maintenance jobs at its Tullamarine base.  Line maintenance will remain of course, but this is a blow for many employees who are ‘specialist Qantas engineers or support people’, many of whom I suspect have never had another job. 

 
This move was not unexpected and was flagged as late as last month but foreshadowed much earlier.  For most people, the reasons are understandable; new technology aircraft are being bought which do not need as much maintenance as their predecessors, and the company believes that there is a need to consolidate maintenance operations to two bases instead of three.  Qantas has apparently offered relocation to a number of employees and at this stage there does not appear to be any significant noise from the Unions.

It is interesting to read the press releases from Qantas this month;
May 21 “Qantas to Consolidate Heavy Maintenance Facilities” www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/media-releases/may-2012/5398/global/en
May 4 “Qantas Group Strategy Update” www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/media-releases/may-2012/5393a/global/en
May 4 “QantasLink Jets into Emerald and Expands Services across Queensland” www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/media-releases/may-2012/5395/global/en
May 4 “Qantas to Increase Domestic Capacity in 2012/2013” www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/media-releases/may-2012/5394/global/en

The Qantas Group’s strategy of building upon the domestic market, making Qantas International more competitive and generally transforming the airline to be more efficient appears sound provided they can engage and carry the workforce with them, and, maintain their good safety record. 

Significantly, engaging the workforce, properly managing the planned changes, improved profits and maintaining a good safety record are all linked.  Qantas management must strive to develop a "We Community" and not an "Us and Them" business community.  This is very important for achieving corporate and safety goals and is a theme of my book, "Safety Management without the Mumbo Jumbo".  If management fail to create a strong focussed "We" business community, the airline will never achieve its goals.