'89 Pilots Dispute Leased Aircraft

TAA727 · Post by **TAA727** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:49 am

A collection of photos taken by my father during the 1989 pilots dispute of aircraft leased in by Australian Airlines.
All were taken on the ramp at the then Australian, now Qantas domestic terminal.

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Now sadly most of these airlines, including Australian, no longer exist. And of those that do the liveries are un-recognisable today!

Simes · Post by **Simes** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:44 pm

What a collection! I have vague memories of RAAF hercs with Ansett titles on them

Even the Sultan of Brueai's 757 (?) got a gernsy and there was mention of the gold taps in the toilets

Tas Bus Nut · Post by **Tas Bus Nut** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:59 pm

Remember them well from the pilots strike. A lot of those headed to Tassie during the dispute. Great shots

dude · Post by **dude** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:09 pm

That was also a great time for Inter-state rail, from my memory all the trains were fully booked by business travellers the first time probably since the 1960's. My family was planning a trip on then soon to be canned Brisbane Limited and remember being told we were waitlisted for when we wanted to travel.

Skindog the Hawk · Post by **Skindog the Hawk** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:36 am

We had a family holiday in that period to Tasmania - ended up flying on the Royal Brunei 757 down to Hobart, with the return trip being HOB-MEL-CBR-SYD...for a young tacker who'd only flown once before, the few take offs and landings in the one trip was a treat!

SD.

Stormmm · Post by **Stormmm** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:38 pm

I flew to Tassie during the strike ..

Flew the Inter European to Melbourne and the Monarch Airways 757 back .. with Australian Airlines providing the trips from Melbourne to Hobart return .. I particularly remember the Monarch 757 because it was an aircraft not usually seen in Australian skies ..

boronia · Post by **boronia** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:25 pm

The coach industry did quite well out of it too. Most of the inbound tourists who should have flown between capitals got moved on chartered coaches.

C130 · Post by **C130** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:25 pm

Got any pics of the Hercs?

mjja · Post by **mjja** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 5:38 pm

Were the aircraft leased with pilots to go with them?

boronia · Post by **boronia** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:32 pm

mjja wrote:Were the aircraft leased with pilots to go with them?

Yes. These planes were leased, or more correctly chartered, because pilots here were refusing to fly.

Then PM, Bob Hawke endeared himself to the cause by describing the pilots as "overpaid bus drivers"

Carlisle 8 · Post by **Carlisle 8** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:48 pm

The pilots got me. I had a long booked annual leave planned. My plan was to fly to and from Adelaide. Between those flights, my intention was to do a big loop, using railcars wherever possible, Adelaide - Mt. Gambier - Melbourne - Sydney - Broken Hill - Adelaide. At least the pilots didn't muck up that part of my trip. The NSW Railways did, though. I rocked in to Wynyard to book my eagerly anticipated trip on the Silver City Comet. The booking guy said "Sorry mate. They pulled it off ten days ago."

Back to the pilots' strike. Bob Hawke stood up to them. He directed that RAAF aircraft were to be used and that interstate passengers could be carried on international flights. Beautiful old RAAF 707s were used. As already covered in this thread, both airlines wet leased overseas airliners. One good thing about that, was that it was the "off season" in Europe and it was thus easier to lease aircraft from there. The airlines also tried to find overseas pilots to fly the airlines own aircraft.

I feared that I might not get a flight to Adelaide, but I was given a seat on a BA 747, scheduled to leave Perth at the ungodly hour of 0330. The bloody thing broke down in Singapore and we Perth passengers kept being given later departure times, until the pilots ran out of time and we were told to come back tomorrow. A very tired Carlisle 8 did that and flew to Adelaide in an ancient 747-136, G-AWNL.

My return trip ADL-PER was not a direct flight! It was ADL-MEL in an Ansett 767-277, VH-RMH. For the first time in my life, the pilots said nothing at all, until the plane was in level flight. Then the Captain came on, speaking in a French accent. Perhaps Ansett had had experience of passengers on aircraft at the terminal bolting for the exits, when they heard a French accent? Next came a MEL-PER flight in a shiny new Air 2000 757-23A (ER), G-OOOI, which had only entered service in 10/89, the previous month.

kitkat271 · Post by **kitkat271** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:29 pm

Wow ... can we have another pilots' strike?

marc506 · Post by **marc506** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 5:27 am

I'm wondering how many stops that 737s would of had to make to get here and the sort of route they would of had to take.

alburybuses2 · Post by **alburybuses2** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:48 pm

kitkat271 wrote:Wow ... can we have another pilots' strike?

Roll on to 2011, your wish is my command master ! (though not quite as drastic ... YET)

Rclasstramcar · Post by **Rclasstramcar** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:48 pm

Countrylink reported an over 90% jump in passengers & phone inquiries jumped by 73%

in the last strike.

Ben

boronia · Post by **boronia** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 6:43 pm

It was a good season for the charter coach industry, and express service.

Funny thing was that it eventually destroyed the express market.

ajw373 · Post by **ajw373** » Sat Apr 20, 2013 8:49 am

boronia wrote:It was a good season for the charter coach industry, and express service.

Funny thing was that it eventually destroyed the express market.

Not quite, what killed the express market was airline deregulation, which occurred around the same time. The pilots dispute was essentially separate from the issue of deregulation, though the airlines may have used the pending deregulation as a means of 'cleaning' up pilot working conditions.

paulbrown3 · Post by **paulbrown3** » Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:20 am

Anyway of seeing the photos. I must of missed this one 1st time around

TAA727 · Post by **TAA727** » Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:14 pm

All that I originally up-loaded (and more) are on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philtograp ... 505458817/