Anatomy of a grounding: Qantas seeks immediate and lasting concessions to secure future

The never calm world of Australian aviation was delivered one of its largest shocks in a decade when Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced on 29-Oct-2011 union employees would be locked out from work without pay and the entire mainline fleet grounded immediately. Mr Joyce has placed an extraordinarily confident bet that suspending staff will very quickly see them relent, on their own or in court, on wanting unsustainable pay increases and other claims, for which they have been striking for.

The lasting implications, provided Mr Joyce's aplomb is precise, will finally secure Qantas the long-term cost base and operational flexibility it says it needs to compete at home and abroad as carriers with lower cost bases secure market share at Qantas' expense. The move, which Mr Joyce called "unbelievable", is also aimed at ending what management sees as the controlling power the carrier's unions have exerted.

As union contentions increased in Aug-2011, Mr Joyce said Qantas for the first time was saying no to unions and would continue to not relent, forewarning: "We will defend the company for the future."