Qantas scrambles to retrain pilots as it plots path out of pandemic

Now on the cusp of having come through the aviation industry’s most damaging black swan moment, Qantas is facing a staffing hangover – having to retrain at least 200 pilots to ready itself for flying.

This follows 238 pilot redundancies during COVID – an exercise that one industry player estimated had cost it between $60 million to $70 million.

With borders set to open in the near future Qantas (and probably Virgin also) is faced with a mad scramble to have appropriate staff to fly. And the retraining exercise is exacerbated by the arcane pecking order system that governs pilot placements.

When one pilot goes, the vacancy he or she creates needs to be offered to the next most senior pilot, regardless of whether that person is trained for that particular aircraft.

The industry jargon for this exercise is referred to as the movement in ‘fleets and seats’ – ie a different aircraft and a change in seniority.

This causes a ripple effect among the pilot cohort that requires a significant retraining exercise.

Not only has COVID had its effect on staffing cockpits, the retirement of Qantas’ 747 aircraft has also triggered the need to retrain those pilots. Moreover, there’s the issue of replenishing the cabin crew, with many flight attendants having left the aviation industry.

This raises questions about whether Qantas boss Alan Joyce was too quick on the draw when he accepted redundancies of more than 230 pilots, as COVID grounded the aviation sector globally.

There is an argument that it would have been cheaper for Qantas to hold on to pilots rather than pay them redundancy, and with the value of hindsight, that might have been a more cost-effective plan.

The shedding of roughly a third of Qantas’ workforce came at a time when group revenue had fallen to a trickle, forcing it to raise equity and bolster its debt facilities as it lost billions of dollars.

In the 2021 financial year, Qantas lost $1.73 billion representing a slight improvement on the previous year’s loss of $1.96 billion.

While Australian airlines now have some visibility on when some domestic borders will open and an expectation that select international routes will open from November and December, there’s no real clarity on whether the initial rush of expected demand before Christmas will extend into next year.

The extent to which holidaymakers are comfortable enough to travel overseas next year is questionable. Some analysts have estimated pre-COVID international travel will not return until 2023 or even 2024.

Additionally, overseas business travel is expected to be sluggish through 2022.

This will require Qantas to remain quite fluid on bringing mothballed aircraft and their crews back into service.

The aviation landscape in Australia has also changed significantly since COVID hit in early 2020.

Virgin having been placed into administration has been re-birthed with new owners and a more mid-market skew. It has also abandoned its budget carrier Tigerair, leaving that segment to Jetstar alone.

The regional airline REX has also expanded its wings to take on some Australian major capital city routes. It also markets itself as a mid-market carrier and as such provides more competition with Virgin.

The latest entrant, Bonza, which only unveiled a rough sketch of its plans this week is pitching at the very budget end of the spectrum. It hasn’t announced which routes it will contest but appears to be targeting tourist destinations rather than capital city markets.

While Qantas share price dipped on the announcement of Bonza it fully recovered on Wednesday as shareholders discounted it as a competitive threat. smh.com.au