STORY:
No Fly Y2K is Bogus says Qantas

According to Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, Qantas's chief executive officer, James Strong, and its key executives will not take flights at midnight on December 31 to prove the safety of its planes.

Strong says reports that British Airways had required its management to board a flight on New Year's Eve were "a great furphy" and it was better for Qantas executives to remain on the ground watching for Y2K computer problems than flying.

"I will be at our headquarters stone-cold sober, watching what happens and ready to take quick actions," Strong reportedly told a national meeting of accountants in Adelaide.

"The last place I'd want a key executive to be is in the air. I think that would be the same with most businesses. We will have all our key people there making decisions."

Ansett, which has a fleet of 80 aircraft, has previously said it had no plans to make its executives board planes on New Year's Eve in a plan to reassure passengers.

In a report to the Australian Stock Exchange, Qantas said it may be forced to cancel flights to Asia and cut traditional stopovers at Singapore and Bangkok because of the Y2K computer bug.

The article says flight control and navigation systems in Asian ports may be exposed to the Y2K bug and this may result in Qantas flights to London flying over the Pacific Ocean and across North America to get to Britain.

The report says Qantas will have only one domestic plane airborne at midnight on New Year's Eve, which is the red-eye Perth-Sydney service. Many of its planes on international routes to the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America are scheduled to be in flight.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

DATE: 4/09/99

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