Oh Qantas...

Even though I was only 11 years old at the time I vividly remember that autumn day in 2001, when the Swiss national airline, Swissair, was grounded. The airline had been an important piece of Swiss national pride and almost everyone had held shares of the company. It was a sad day, and people were angry and confused as to why the government did not help the bankrupt airline.

So when Qantas management grounded its fleet, the images of the red-white planes, stranded in airports around the world, seemed eerily familiar to me. But the big difference is that while Swissair had to ground its fleet because they simply, physically did not have the money to pay for the kerosene to power their aircraft, with Qantas, it was different. It seems bizarre to just shut down the whole company to force the unions to take back their claims.

While I'm not familiar with the exact numbers and details, I just can't imagine that such extreme action would have a positive outcome for Qantas. While the unions may have given in (temporarily?), the financial loss from not operating their business at all must be ridiculously high. But what's probably even worse is the damage that this grounding must have inflicted on the company's image. Additionally, the climate within the company must have suffered tremendously. How do you go back to work after your company has shut you out for a few days?

It leaves me wondering how the Qantas executive came to the conclusion that a complete shut down was the best solution in this case, and it will be interesting to see how that all plays out in the future. Let's hope Qantas won't have to ground their fleet again in the near future - at least they are flying again, unlike the Swissair planes, which remained grounded forever.