Is Qantas Rediscovering Customer Service In Time For The School Holidays?

Qantas

IATA/ICAO Code

QF/QFA

Airline Type

Full Service Carrier

Hub(s)

Brisbane Airport, Melbourne Airport, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport

Year Founded

1920

Alliance

oneworld

CEO

Alan Joyce

Country

Australia

The kids are probably delighted, maybe their parents less so, but the winter school holidays are underway around Australia, and that means families are on the move. Australia’s biggest airline group, the Qantas Group, is flagging big crowds at airports this weekend, particularly at its key Sydney hub. The Qantas Group says it has contingency measures in place, but with some pretty ordinary weather forecasted around Sydney, they warn people to be prepared and to expect some delays.

Qantas warns passengers to get ready for a busy weekend

In a statement, the Qantas Group says its most popular domestic destinations for travelers these holidays include Cairns, Perth, Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast. Internationally, flights to London, Rome, the United States, Bali, and Queenstown are extremely popular. Qantas and Jetstar are getting ready to fly more than 350,000 customers across Australia over the next four days. By US or European standards, that’s not a lot, but it’s certainly enough to keep Qantas on the hop for the next few days.

Perhaps more ominously, families who fly infrequently will make up many of the 350,000 passengers. Invariably, some will roll up at security screening, start unpacking their gear and still set the buzzers off. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce was excoriated earlier this year when he termed these types of passengers “not match fit.” Unfortunately, he had a point.

Extra staff and contingency plans ahead of a busy weekend for Qantas

There’s a lot of heavy rain around Sydney this weekend which will add to potential problems. Qantas and Jetstar are reminding travelers to check in online and arrive at the domestic terminals around two hours (three hours for international flights) ahead of their scheduled departure time. But the Qantas Group has also got the message that customers generally don’t like being blamed for problems at airports and airlines. Jetstar has escaped the worst of it, but Qantas has been on the receiving end of a storm of criticism this year for its real and perceived customer service failings.

During these school holidays, widebody jets, including Boeing 787-9s and Airbus A330s will go on standby to stand in narrowbody aircraft if necessary. The airline also says they are addressing labor shortfalls. In their statement, the Qantas Group says they’ve recruited more than 1000 operational team members, including cabin crew, airport customer service, pilots and engineers. Hundreds of additional contact center staff have helped reduce Qantas’ average call wait times to below pre-COVID levels.

Is Qantas pivoting back to customer service?

The Qantas Group also notes these new recruits are now moving from training into actual work. CEO Alan Joyce has adopted an altogether softer tone recently regarding his customers. He’s often acknowledged Qantas’ failings, apologizing and even deigning to answer tedious questions like why the airline is serving inexpensive $25 a bottle wine in business class. It’s all about quality over price – apparently. Three months ago, he would have waved that question away with a go fly on another airline if you don’t like the wine gesture. Critically, Qantas is also starting to answer the phone and process refunds in a reasonable period of time after letting time frames get out of hand during the pandemic.

Is it a more customer-centric Qantas that’s giving passengers the heads-up about potential problems this weekend? Maybe. But the Qantas group is also likely eyeing the pattern set by US carriers publicizing probable disruptions ahead of the busy July 4 holiday there. The theory is customers are likely to be less annoyed if they have forewarning of delays, cancelations, and disruptions. That’s probably true – to a point.