Comments on: Qantas 737 saga a deadly dangerous farce

By: Richard West

Richard West — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

This cannot continue when is Qantas going to be grounded? When is the Chairman of the board going to take over and sack Geof Dixon he does not thing that there is any systemic problems in Qantas. He should not stay until November. The traveling should not be made to put up with the constant delays and put at risk. The chairman should sack the spin doctors and take responsibiity. It will take a major crash for them to believe that there is a problem. This is too late.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

To the average punter. If given the choice between gold plated safety or “cheap air fares”, they will take the cheap air fares every time. If I had a dollar for every time I have had been given a dirty look for saying at BBQ’s or social functions that Australia is paying dearly for its cheap air fares, by bringing up incidents such as the above as an example I would be a rich man.

By: Ben@Crikey

Ben@Crikey — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Greg, It’s a good point until you get into the records. None of the major low fare airlines have had a passenger fatality. Southwest, flying since 1972, has more than 400 737s in service. Ryanair and easyJet are all much larger than Virgin Blue, Jetstar or of course Tiger. There is no statistical link between the LCC models we see in this country, Europe or North America and higher accident rates. What they have done in my view is to stress the legacy carriers,which may go for deep cost cutting as an easier fix than a total restructuring of their operations. Qantas is a carrier which has set out to do both of these things. The ‘discussion’ that rages in our airline sector is whether or not Qantas has damaged its truly priceless reputation for excellence in operations by hacking too deeply into maintenance and standards.

By: Frank Birchall

Frank Birchall — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Very worrying indeed and more so if one considers this could be the tip of the iceberg!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Exploding oxygen bottles, engine and air-con shutdowns, nose cones and bulkheads without airworthy certification, engine body panels falling off, water leaking onto wiring, blocked sinks and toilets. Qantas has all the signs of major maintenance issues yet even this morning the company continues to deny there is cost-cutting or flight safety ‘repercussions’! If Pan Pharmaceuticals was shut down overnight, then why not at the very least call for a full safety audit of the national airline’s fleet. It carries more than 200-million passengers each year or aren’t they good reason?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I cancelled a return Qantas flight for 4 to London a 2 months ago because I learned through Crikey what was going on, I’m now chasing a refund and if I don’t get it I’ll go screaming to the media.
I don’t think I’m obliged to complete a contract tp fly with an airline who is running a fleet with minimum maintenance and recent events would back that up.