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Qantas engineers to hold one-minute work stoppage

Qantas engineers to hold one-minute work stoppage

More than 700 aircraft engineers from Qantas, Jetstar and Perth-based FIFO subsidiary Network Aviation will conduct a “one-minute work stoppage” in August.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers’ Association (ALAEA) federal secretary Steve Purvinas told members in a meeting on Wednesday that the majority had voted in favor of industrial action.

Airline engineers are asking their employer for a 12 per cent pay rise to make up for stagnant wages the last four years.

The union’s first action will be a one-minute stoppage across all airlines sometime in late August.

“The first action will be a token one,” Mr Purvinas told members.

“A one-minute stoppage of course is not going to harm any airline and also demonstrates our willingness to negotiate in good faith and not try and harm the airline.”

Mr Purvinas said the token stoppage aimed to give the airlines an opportunity to come to the table.

“We do want to give some time for resolution of these matters before we have to do anything that may even be close to disrupting the public,” he said.

The strikes come at a difficult time for Australia’s national flag carrier, as the aviation industry struggles with staff shortages that have led to flight cancellations, delays and missing luggage.

If the stoppage does not motivate negotiations, the union plans to notify the airline of more work stoppages.

During these stoppages, the union has offered to provide “alternative labor provisions” to the airline.

“We want to assure the public that we won’t be harming their services,” Mr Purvinas said.

“Our target is the airlines who are not negotiating in good faith.”

ALAEA members voted against using overtime bans to avoid “exacerbating” already challenging conditions in the industry.

A Qantas spokesman told the NCA NewsWire in July that the 12 per cent pay rise was something the airline “simply can’t afford”.

They said Qantas had a policy of 2 per cent annual increases for all employees across the Group.

The airline has a history of not holding back when it comes to dealing with union industrial action.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce infamously grounded the airline during a dispute with the ALAEA and two other unions back in 2011, leaving 200,000 passengers stranded without notice.

Qantas was contacted for comment.

Read related topics:Perth Qantas

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Qantas moves managers and executives into baggage handling

Qantas moves managers and executives into baggage handling

Qantas senior executives and managers will step down from their usual roles to pitch in as ground handlers, as the airline continues to suffer from major staff shortages.

The shake-up is part of an extraordinary contingency program expected to last three months and help the airline get back on its feet before the busy summer holiday period.

While the airline has rehired close to 2000 staff after letting about 1700 ground handlers go during the pandemic, it has struggled to stay on top of baggage, flight delays and cancellations.

Chief operating officer Colin Hughes told staff that during the contingency program, they would be an “embedded resource within the ground handling partners”, Australianreports.

“This means you’ll receive a roster, be scheduled to operate and be supervised and managed in the live operations by our ground-handling partners.”

Staff participating in the program would be required to sort through and scan bags, and drive airport tugs to carry luggage onto planes and between terminals.

“It’s our singular company focus to support our teams to get our operation back to where it should be and provide our passengers the experience they expect from the airline,” Mr Hughes said in his note to staff.

A Qantas spokesperson said the measures were introduced as a result of staff shortages caused by flu and Covid, as well as the tight labor market.

“We’ve been clear that our operational performance has not been meeting our customers’ expectations or the standards that we expect of ourselves – and that we’ve been pulling out all stops to improve our performance,” they told news.com.au .

“As we have done in the past during busy periods, around 200 head office staff have helped at airports during peak travel periods since Easter.

“While we manage the impacts of a record flu season and ongoing Covid cases coupled with the tightest labor market in decades, we’re continuing that contingency planning across our airport operations for the next three months.”

Qantas is filing an appeal in the High Court after the Federal Court found it was in breach of the Fair Work Act for sacking almost 2000 staff during the pandemic.

It has yet to fully staff its operations since domestic and international travel summarized following the Covid shutdown period.

Qantas’ reputation has suffered immensely in recent months with furious customers complaining about delayed and canceled flights, missing luggage and extreme customer service wait times.

Read related topics:qantas

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Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin: Broome airport hit with massive flight delay record

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin: Broome airport hit with massive flight delay record

Flights leaving one Australian airport have had the largest delays in the entire country, with almost 70 per cent of planes delayed.

Figures, released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics report, found less than 30 per cent of flights headed from Broome to Perth left on time, the worst route in the entire country.

The report looked at delays and cancellations across all major Australian airport in the month of June.

Airlines included in the report were Virgin Australia, Qantas, Jetstar, QantasLink and Rex Airlines.

The figures for on time arrivals in June reached all time lows for all 58 travel routes looked at.

Qantas recorded the highest percentage of cancellations at 8.1 per cent during the month, followed by QantasLink, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines and Rex Airlines.

Australia’s signature airline company Qantas recorded just over half of their airlines arrived on time in June, at 59 per cent, while Virgin achieved the highest level of on time departures among the major domestic airlines at 60 per cent.

A Qantas spokesperson told NCA NewsWire these flight delays and cancellations are not the kind of performance that they were delivering pre-Covid.

“A rise in COVID and other illnesses among airline crew as well as the tight labor market led to flight disruptions for all domestic airlines in June.” they said.

“We had rostered additional crew on standby which helped lessen the impact of COVID-related crew absences and meant 85 per cent of our domestic flights for the month departed within an hour of schedule.”

“Flight cancellations in July were lower than they were in June, call center wait times are now better than they were pre-COVID and our mishandled bag rates are close to what they were before the pandemic.”

Mildura Airport, which is located in northwest Victoria, recorded the lowest percentage of on time arrivals sitting at more than 47 per cent, while Alice Springs Airport recorded the highest rate of on time arrivals at 87 per cent.

Cancellations were highest on the Sydney-Melbourne route at 15.3 per cent, followed by the Melbourne-Sydney route at 14.9 per cent, and the Sydney-Canberra route at 11.1 per cent.

The report follows after more than 21 flights were canceled in Sydney across the Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Rex networks on Tuesday.

Virgin dumped 10 flights, Qantas nixed eight, with two pulled from Jetstar and one from Rex, combined with an additional 20 flights scrapped at Melbourne Airport as of 8.30am on Tuesday.

Both domestic and international flights with major aussie airlines alongside Emirates, British Airways and American Airlines were also dumped on Monday between 6.30am-7am.

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Travel chaos: Airline experts warn delays and cancellations will continue for months

Travel chaos: Airline experts warn delays and cancellations will continue for months

An aviation expert has warned travel chaos “pain” could continue into next year as the industry struggles to meet soaring demand after stripping services during the pandemic.

Flight Center managing director Graham Turner cautioned travelers to be wary of delays and cancellations until at least the end of the year as airlines contend with inexperienced and ill staff.

“Bear in mind the aviation industry, and you know travel industry generally, has two-and-a-half years when we had to absolutely cut to the bone everything and now building that back up is quite difficult,” he said on Channel 9’s Today show.

Mr Turner admitted the aviation industry was experiencing a “tough period” and asked travelers to exercise “a bit of patience”.

The travel boss noted the chaos was more manageable for domestic travelers despite the mass cancellations and delays.

On Monday, 40 flights between Sydney and Melbourne were canceled and hundreds of people were left sitting on plans after a computer outage grounded Qantas plans.

“Domestically, our experience is although there are delays, a lot of changes, quite a few cancellations, generally most people are getting away and getting to their destination,” he said.

“It is a bit harder internationally because if you get international cancellations it can be quite hard to get seats.”

Mr Turner said there would continue to be “pain” for travelers for at least the next couple of months as the industry grapples with staffing issues and the effects of the ongoing pandemic.

Happily, he predicts, traveling around Australia will be much easier by the end of the year when “all of this really settles down”.

“Domestically, it will improve and we certainly predict by October/November, assuming the Omicron does settle down, it will be much better off,” he said.

While the news will surely be welcomed by local travellers, those looking to travel internationally have no reassuring timeline for when the dust will settle.

The bleak news comes as Australia’s airports gain international attention for all the wrong reasons.

Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport was recently ranked one of the 10 worst airports in the world for flight delays.

Meanwhile, social media has been flooded with angry travelers reporting lost baggage, delayed or canceled flights and staggering queues.

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