Virgin slashes 30 flights over cabin crew shortages

As such, the airline was unable to find last-minute cover for several flights throughout the weekend, particularly on same day return routes, or ‘turns’, that amounted to 10+ hour days for cabin crew.

Impacted routes included Perth-Brisbane, Brisbane-Cairns, Sydney-Cairns, Queenstown-Melbourne and Sydney-Nadi.

According to an anonymous source, many cabin crew are refusing to take up last minute shifts on their rostered day off due to current working conditions.

“The payment for [picking up a shift] is around $300 to $350 — the same whether you work a short Melbourne return or a gruelling day trip to Darwin and back,” the source told The Australian.

“Every time crew says yes, the problems get papered over for another week. So more of us are saying no.”

The source said that the issue largely impacts “long day returns” the most, including trips to Darwin, Perth, Nadi and Queenstown. “These are long, draining duties flown out and back in a single day,” they said.

VIEW ALL

>

It comes as Virgin continues to negotiate its new enterprise agreement with its cabin crew – with the Flight Attendants Associate of Australia (FAAA) pushing to see a reduction in maximum duty hours for cabin crew to 9 hours and 45 minutes, from the current maximums of 10 hours for four-sector days and 12 hours for two sectors.

FAAA national secretary Teri O’Toole said that the current rostering regimen is “ridiculous” and leaves crew feeling overworked. “Duty limits of 9 hours and 45 minutes is what they had pre-COVID, and it’s something we will fight for”.

In a similar vein, the FAAA’s industrial relations manager Steven Reed is calling on Virgin to introduce the use of professional cleaning crews between flights, rather than relying on cabin crew.

“It used to be a tidy-up but now they practically have to wear hazmat suits,” Reed said, adding that crew now barely get time for a bathroom break between flights.

One crew member told the Sydney Morning Herald that reduced catering onboard was resulting in more passengers bringing their own food onboard, leading to more mess and rubbish for crew to clean up.

“Virgin Australia really needs to spend some money on professional cleaners. It’s fallen to cabin crew for long enough,” Reed said.

Virgin Australia denied that recent cancellations were at all connected to ongoing enterprise agreement negotiations, noting that there is no current protected or unprotected industrial action taking place. An airline spokesperson said that negotiations are “continuing productively and in good faith”.

Meanwhile, Reed said that crew are well within their rights to refuse to work on a day off, particularly in light of current operational conditions and fatigue.