Unions take on Jetstar over Burma flights

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has urged Jetstar to stop its flights to Burma, claiming that they are helping to prop up the junta government there.

“It is immoral. You are propping up a military regime that is oppressing people,” ACTU president Sharan Burrow told the ABC’s AM program. “Jetstar has a 49 per cent stake in a company that transfers to and from Rangoon. We think that they should be out.”

However, Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan told ‘Fairfax’ that the airline’s services were not harming the Burmese people and noted that the airline would be happy to cease flights to Burma if it thought they were causing harm. “Whenever we look at it and talk to the (aid) agencies that are in there, they say it’s a good thing. We are giving people access to get out and get education, aid agencies to get in there, and people reconnecting with friends and family,” he said.

The 49 per cent Qantas Group owned Jetstar Asia operates four flights a week from Singapore to Rangoon.