QANTAS TO GROUND FIVE AIRCRAFT DUE TO UNION ACTION

SYDNEY, 13 October 2011: Qantas has announced it will ground five aircraft and cut around 100
domestic flights a week with union industrial action causing a shortfall in required maintenance.

The Australian Licenced Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (ALAEA) has been taking industrial action for several months including a ban on overtime work in place at maintenance facilities around the country and a ‘go-slow’ approach to work which has caused a backlog of maintenance.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said four Boeing 737 aircraft and one Boeing 767 aircraft would remain grounded for at least a month.

“Regrettably, the industrial action from the licensed aircraft maintenance engineers’ union is now making it difficult to clear maintenance tasks in a timely fashion,” Mr Joyce said.

“It takes about 15,000 hours per week to maintain the fleet. We are seeing a shortfall in maintenance capacity of over 1,200 hours per week or about eight per cent.

“This means a number of aircraft are not available each day which has caused a decline in schedule reliability. On-time performance has fallen from 87 per cent four weeks ago to 77 per cent today.

“This is not a safety concern as problems are addressed before planes fly. But it is causing ongoing and unplanned disruption to our customers.”

The reduction in flying will mainly impact services to and from Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. There will be no impact on QantasLink, Jetconnect and Jetstar services.

Mr Joyce said the coordinated campaign from three unions representing long-haul pilots, licensed engineers and baggage handlers and catering staff was causing severe disruptions to passengers and damage to the Qantas business and other employees.

“Between the three unions we are seeing almost daily strikes, bans on overtime, political messages being read out to customers on international and domestic flights and union leaders telling passengers to expect disruptions for many months to come,” Mr Joyce said.

“Not only are they seeking pay and conditions that would put us even further beyond our competitors, they want the right to control key elements of how we run the company.

“We are a generous employer and we have always been ready to negotiate a fair agreement. In the past 15 months we have reached agreements with four unions for more than 10,000 employees.

“We urge the unions to drop this industrial campaign and come back with realistic claims for the sake of all Qantas employees, our shareholders and the Australian travelling public. “