iscover
Virgin Australia’s wet-lease deal with Qatar Airways will be good for Australian jobs, CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has said, counter to union concerns.
Speaking at the Australian Airports Association conference in Brisbane, Hrdlicka said Virgin operating its own long-haul international services would be “at least six or seven years away”, but that the wet-lease arrangement would likely see Virgin pilots and cabin crew working on Qatar flights.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
“It’s great for jobs in the long term, and in the short term it means pilots and cabin crew have secondment opportunities to go to Qatar, and learn the A350 and 777,” she said, as reported in The Australian.
“That means we will have to backfill for all those people. So, if 40 pilots go to Qatar for 12 or 18 months, we would need 40 more pilots in Australia, and the same goes for cabin crew.
“If I was in my mid-20s and cabin crew I would be all over it, travel the world and have a really fun, different experience, and you know your job is secure when you come home. For those two work groups, it’s great.”
The unions have largely been skeptical of the wet-leasing arrangement and its potential impact on jobs, with Teri O’Toole, national secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA), telling The Australian she is concerned about pay and conditions for Virgin workers on Qatar flights.
“Qatar pays its crew about $26 an hour, which is well below what flight attendants in Australia are paid,” O’Toole said.
“Then there is the matter of Qatari law. I wouldn’t want to send my daughter to Doha for a year, and there are inherent dangers for any gay cabin crew in a country where homosexuality is a crime.”
O’Toole also noted that Qantas staff could be also disadvantaged under such a deal.
“This open-ended wet lease arrangement will make it harder for Qantas to compete on the international stage because they can’t afford to operate at a loss, and we are concerned it will push Qantas to strike up a similar arrangement with Emirates, which would be disastrous for employees,” she said.
Virgin’s main pilots’ union, the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP), has been more supportive of the proposed sale of 25 per cent of Virgin to Qatar Airways, but expressed in its ACCC submission that the wet lease should be limited to three to five years.
“The wet lease is an appropriate tool in the short term to establish the operations before transitioning to the operation of these services by Virgin Australia pilots based in Australia. However, the wet lease is outsourcing air rights reserved for Australian airlines to foreign-owned airframes utilising overseas labour,” the union said.
“Our concerns about ensuring that this arrangement does not undermine Australian pilot jobs or the local airline industry in the long term would be mitigated by limiting the wet lease to a five-year period with transition to dry lease determined at the end of the three-year period.”
Virgin Australia says five years is the intended initial time frame for the wet-lease agreement, giving it a chance to see how well a return to international wide-body operations will serve it in the long term.
“This reflects the significant opportunity that an early resumption – and carefully planned longer-term assessment – of long-haul international flying presents for Virgin Australia and our people,” a spokesperson said.
“And of course, for customers, the proposed alliance will enhance competition in Australian aviation and place downward pressure on international airfares to Europe, the Middle East and Africa as soon as mid-2025.
“It is estimated the direct economic benefit of Virgin Australia’s proposed new services to Qatar will add ~$3 billion of economic benefit in Australia over the five-year authorisation period due to increased inbound international visitor spend.”
[email protected]
says:This possible business arrangement with Qatar should not be thought of as a “change”: – few folk like change and react against it. This, is a major opportunity for all staff at VOZ to move forward and progress upwards and I am sure that all will embrace this in what is an outstanding and rare opportunity to progress their futures both professionally and personally. More than likely, the negatives will come from those that couldn’t qualify anyway. Interestingly, did I hear the Boss Lady mention the A350 word, that wouldn’t impress the suit shiners in mahogany row at Bain.