Category: Qantas

Virgin Australia has announced it will offer 3000 extra seats today between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Karratha to assist passengers stranded by the Qantas grounding. The announcement is on top of the 40,000 extra seats Virgin said it would offer over the next two weeks. Virgin also said it was “in discussions with alliance partners

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s decision to ground the entire mainline fleet of 108 aircraft yesterday afternoon was a stunning display of brinkmanship, one which will likely decide his fate as CEO. The airline says it is losing an “unsustainable” $15 million a week due to ongoing and “cynical” industrial action by the ALAEA and TWU.

Ahead of its heated annual general meeting today, Qantas has said that the financial impact by industrial action from three of its unions, the ALAEA, TWU and AIPA, has cost it $68 million to date. “This drawn out and coordinated industrial campaign by these three unions is having a major impact on Qantas,” Qantas CEO

The union representing Qantas maintenance engineers, the ALAEA, has today called a three week halt to its campaign of protected industrial action against the airline. “With immediate effect all industrial action is called off for three weeks,” a statement on the ALAEA’s website published Thursday afternoon reads. “Members are requested to accept all overtime offered.