Recent reports of Qantas aircraft returns should not be cause for concern for flyers; instead, they highlight how well Qantas is monitoring its safety, says Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.
In a rare op-ed for the airline, Joyce said that the multiple turn backs Qantas had recently experienced – and received a “huge amount of attention” for – in the space of around a week were “actually a symptom of strong safety systems”.
“Our pilots always err on the side of caution because that’s what we train them to do. If an onboard system isn’t working the way it should, they will often decide to land rather than pressing on to the destination,” he wrote.
“I congratulate them for doing that and encourage them to keep doing it. And despite the obvious inconvenience, I think most of our customers do, too.”
In January, AirlineRatings.com named Qantas the safest airline of 2023.
A matter of perspective
Joyce said that there were over 10,000 air returns a year within the aviation sector, and that Qantas’ average turn back numbers had not changed from before and after Covid. According to the Qantas boss, this is around 60 a year or 1 per 2,000 flights.
The number of air returns for QantasLink totals over 200 a year as there are more of these flights and major cities can service aircraft better than more remote areas.
“If you’re flying on an aircraft that has an issue, it’s not because it’s not well looked after. It’s because they are incredibly complex pieces of equipment with many layers of redundancy,” Joyce added.
“There are multiple safeguards for everything that happens in-and-around an aircraft, which is critical because no one is perfect. And that is ultimately why aviation in this country is so safe.
“We will always put safety before schedule.”
Beyond safety
In his opinion piece, Joyce also took the opportunity to talk up Qantas’ improved on-time performance and baggage handling.
After apologising for the group’s lacklustre performance in this area in a message in August, the Qantas boss said “almost every week after that, things improved”.
“And it’s a huge credit to our people that the data now shows Qantas is back to its best,” he wrote.
“We’ve been the most on-time of the major domestic airlines for five months in a row.
“Our service levels – bags, cancellations, catering and the call centre – are back to what customers expect from us. And we’re working to make it better.”
On high airfares
Joyce also addressed the issue of current high airfares. While skyrocketing fares had mostly been due to factors beyond the airline’s control – overall capacity in the industry, rising fuel costs, inflation – Joyce said Qantas would be doing what it could to help lower prices, and that is to return more seats to the skies.
“Domestically, we’re almost back to 100 per cent of pre-COVID flying levels,” he remarked.
“Internationally, we’ll be at around 80 per cent by the middle of the year and we’ve recently seen most of our competitors announce a major ramp up in their capacity, so you can expect to see fares trend down, keeping in mind we’re all paying more for most things at the moment.”
In a separate message to Qantas Frequent Flyer members, Joyce said more than 8 million people had incorporated Qantas into their end-of-year holiday plans in 2022 and highlighted “how much smoother travel was than in the recent past”.
“Across the Group we’re expecting 11 new aircraft this year alone as part of ongoing fleet renewal, and in the months ahead we have some exciting announcements on lounges, destinations, and Frequent Flyer developments.”
Last week, Qantas announced it would be launching a new nonstop international route from Melbourne to Jakarta.
