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Qantas passenger slams 'gross' state of plane: 'Gut-wrenching'

A Qantas customer has taken to social media to blast the company, claiming its cleanliness standards have dramatically declined.

The passenger posted a photo on social media forum Reddit taken on a recent 8.30am Sydney to Melbourne Qantas flight. The image showed large crumbs littering the floor at the base of their seat.

"Qantas cleanliness has really fallen off the cliff. Or has it always been like this?" they asked.

Others soon commented about their experiences with the airline in recent years, expressing the same sentiment.

A Qantas plane pictured on the left and a photo of crumbs found on a Qantas Sydney to Melbourne flight on the right. Source: Getty and Reddit
Customers have complained about the cleanliness onboard Qantas planes, whether it may be crumbs on or near seats, dirty tray tables or other instances. Source: Getty and Reddit

"Cleanliness has declined!! I used to fly only Qantas and quite regularly," one person responded.

"But my last flight I found a half eaten sandwich and muffin in the seat, crumbs all over the seat, And the seats were all sticky."

Though people were quick to point out these conditions are part of a systemic issue on all domestic flights — many believe it needs to be addressed as people will continue to be "gross".

"Unfortunately that's pretty standard for domestic flights that operate as shuttle buses back and forth non-stop," one person said.

"There isn't time (plus cost savings) to do a full clean."

Although another claimed cleanliness is "way worse on international flights".

"This is probably every plane no matter the airline," they said.

"Disappointed about the kind of standard we have to accept," another said.

One person claimed to share the perspective of airline workers, who say the focus "isn't on quality anymore".

"I'm in health, we've had a lot of Qantas workers come over to us since the pandemic started and they all say the same thing, it's not the same business they used to work for." they said.

Yahoo News Australia has contacted Qantas for comment.

Employees lament airline's 'gut-wrenching' decline

Earlier this month, ABC's Four Corners reported that during the early stages of the pandemic, no disinfectant was used to clean on board its planes but rather a cloth and water was merely used. However Qantas has denied this to be true.

"It is gut-wrenching to see the company that we loved end up like this," one former Qantas worker told the program.

While Qantas executives have blamed its recent problems on labour shortages and Covid outbreaks among employees, current and former staff point to a corporate strategy to outsource jobs as producing the poor standards and insufficient customer care.

The transport union's national secretary Michael Kaine previously pinned the fall in conditions on outsourcing by Qantas.

Mr Kaine called on the new Albanese government to establish a regulatory body to set minimum standards across the industry.

"We need to rebalance aviation towards good, secure jobs that keep skilled workers in the industry and ensure the safety of the travelling public," he told Australian Aviation.

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