[Bernie P]

QANTAS pilots have come out swinging against CEO Alan Joyce after he remarked that grounding the airline's fleet had been "positive for the brand".
Mr Joyce grounded the entire Qantas fleet in October as part of an industrial dispute with unions.

"I think it has ended up being positive for the brand," he told The Australian today, after the paper named him as one of the most influential business people in the Australia.

But the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) has described the remarks as "bizarre and worrying".

It says the move, which stranded tens of thousands of people around the world, has caused the airline "catastrophic brand damage".

"Any polling and basic commonsense will tell you that ... it is going to hurt Qantas's reputation," AIPA president Captain Barry Jackson said.

"Yet, Mr Joyce thinks, overall, it has improved the brand and that's incredibly worrying."

Capt Jackson said Qantas needed to focus on repairing the brand damage sustained in 2011.

"In order to do so we need a leader who is in touch with passengers and not just business leaders," he added.

"Mr Joyce needs to wake up and realise that the big end of town is cheering him on because they like the idea that someone is crazy enough to deal out huge damage to the company they lead in the name of industrial battle."

Capt Jackson said the fleet's grounding didn't end the industrial dispute.

"It merely forced it into compulsory arbitration, which will, ultimately, result in a less-than-ideal result for all sides and the airline as a whole," he said.

Fair Work Australia delivered the arbitration ruling in the wake of October's mass grounding, and also banned members of the Transport Workers' Union and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association from taking industrial action.

Source: news.com.au