There is more than dodgy ASX traffic figures at play in the internal struggle between Qantas and Jetstar within the Qantas group.

Disaffected pilots and staff are discussing moves to force the Qantas management to disclose secret transfers of assets from Qantas to Jetstar to make the low-cost subsidiary look more profitable than it is, as part of an agenda to kill off the legacy brand’s higher pay and conditions.

They also say they understand the board of Qantas has discussed but remained divided over the merits of making a full disclosure.

The president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Barry Jackson, this morning said: “It is time for management to explain why if it’s so successful Jetstar needs to be propped up by Qantas paying for its gates at major airports here and abroad, paying for significant training costs and paying for its participation in an expensive spare parts pooling arrangement with other A330 operators.

“When the public are fed lines about how much more profitable Jetstar is than main line, can we please see this figures stripped of the  hundreds of millions of dollars of asset transfers.”

The parts pooling arrangement is given by others in the Qantas group as an example of the constant drain of Qantas’ dollars into Jetstar operations.

The following is an extract from the Jetstar  maintenance control manual, chapter 13.5 POOL SPARES:

“JETSTAR AIRWAYS HAS BEEN SPONSORED BY QANTAS AS AN EQUALISED MEMBER OF THE IATP SPARES POOLING AGREEMENT. JETSTAR AIRWAYS DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY SPARES FOR THE POOL BUT RELIES UPON QANTAS FOR THEIR PROVISION. THE POOLING SYSTEM WILL BE OPERATED BY QANTAS ON BEHALF OF JETSTAR AIRWAYS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROCEDURES SET DOWN IN THE QANTAS E&M PROCEDURES MANUAL (CHAPTER 4-60-005) AND RELATED DOCUMENTS”.

One group source said that the transfer of four Qantas A330 wide bodies to Jetstar to begin its international expansion represented a benefit of about $440 million worth of fleet at the prices Qantas paid, and comprised jets that were giving it 35% of its transcontinental domestic earnings.

He also claimed the hedging costs of Jetstar fuel were being paid out of the Qantas section of the accounts, distorting the relative performance of each airline brand.

Jackson says: “To me it’s madness when the corporate market is rebounding to talk up the merits of Jetstar beyond it’s true performance. The employees and shareholders need to know what the true position is.”

He isn’t moved by the management position to date that all that matters is the deployment of Qantas group assets to wherever the company will make the most money for its shareholders.

“I think they are overlooking the damage this does to the Qantas brand in the eyes of passengers who don’t want to fly on the Jetstar product, whether short haul or long haul.”

In other developments today, any seat on Jetstar and Qantas might look good from next week, because licensed maintenance engineers are threatening to strike at Virgin Blue if a long-running  industrial dispute, with what is now Australia’s largest domestic jet carrier, isn’t resolved soon.