Job losses spread beyond Qantas

Damage from the collapse of Qantas New Zealand spread to contractors yesterday, costing at least 120 workers their jobs.

Workers in companies that supplied services to the airline, which called in receivers early on Saturday, have joined the 1100 airline employees who lost their jobs.

The job losses come as Australia's Qantas Airways is poised to move into the New Zealand domestic market, focusing on the biggest cities and using smaller existing airlines to feed passengers from the smaller centres.

Tasman Pacific, the company that had been flying as Qantas NZ for less than a year, collapsed with debts believed to be about $20 million.

The management of Pacific Flight Catering, which supplied all meals to Qantas NZ, has told 70 workers at its Christchurch and Wellington bases that they have lost their jobs.

Fifty staff at Logistix Services, which provided workers at Hamilton, Rotorua and Invercargill airports for Qantas NZ, have also been sacked.

"It's just the pits," said Pacific Flight Catering director Terry Hay. "It's very bad news."

Mr Hay, who is based in Auckland, has been trying to fly down to speak to the chefs, drivers and office staff who have been laid off, but has been unable to get a flight.

"They did everything right and a bunch of bozos running an airline into the ground destroyed 1100 families of their own people and probably 1500 families of suppliers. Great work, eh?"

Mr Hay said he did not expect the shareholders of Qantas NZ would be losing any sleep over the job losses.

Ross Bubbins, a senior ground steward for Pacific Flight Catering at Christchurch Airport, has just lost his job, after 12 years' service. His wife, Barb, has also lost hers.

"All the little subcontractors we had down in Dunedin and Invercargill, they will start having to lay people off," he said.

Logistix Services director Dave Turner, of Hamilton, said the biggest impact would be in Rotorua, where most of the staff were based.

Qantas Airways, the Australian company that allowed the New Zealand operation to use its name, is today due to fly one of its Boeing 767s on the Auckland-Wellington-Christchurch route.

The move has fuelled rumours that only those three cities will get Qantas Airways service, with smaller airlines such as Origin Pacific being used as feeders.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said that if Qantas Airways entered the New Zealand domestic market, its strong reputation meant "people would fly with it with confidence."

This was not the case with Ansett New Zealand, whose services suffered after a pilot lockout in 1999, and then Tasman Pacific, which bought Ansett NZ last year, she said.

"I think the difficulty Ansett NZ and then Tasman Pacific were in was that that debilitating lockout destroyed a lot of people's confidence in their ability to keep to the timetable - it certainly destroyed mine," the Prime Minister said.

"Busy people can't afford to have flights cancelled on them and there was quite a bit of that, and I think that limited their building up a firm clientele again."

One Qantas NZ backer, Sir Clifford Skeggs, refused to comment on the collapse, saying he had "not been actively involved."

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union spokesman Bernard McIlhone said all 70 engineers who worked with the airline were likely to get jobs with Air New Zealand.

Qantas NZ receivers Ferrier Hodgson said staff would be paid up to $6000 of their outstanding wages and holiday pay "as soon as possible."

But engineering union national secretary Andrew Little said workers should not have to wait for their pay while receivers carved up Qantas NZ's assets.

"This is a serious issue for all workers. When a large corporate like Qantas can tip over and leave workers in the lurch, we have to say that nobody is safe."

The law says unpaid wages and holiday pay take priority over other debts, but redundancy pay has the same status as claims by other debtors.

Mr Little said the union feared there would not be enough cash left to pay redundancy.

Airports around the country reported no problems yesterday morning. Passengers also had few complaints, although Stuart Berry, who had planned to fly to Christchurch with Qantas NZ at 6.25 am, found himself on an 8.45 am Air NZ flight.

The change meant he missed appointments in Timaru later in the morning and would be late back to Auckland by several hours.

Auckland woman Sally Anne Wissman, an administrator with Auckland Healthcare, found herself upgraded to business class on an Air NZ flight to Wellington at 8.30 am. The Qantas NZ flight she had originally booked had been due to leave at 8.15 am.

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