More travel chaos expected this Christmas

Members of the aviation arm of the United Firefighters Union (UFU) voted overwhelmingly – 93 per cent – in favour of work stoppages.

”At every major and regional airport across Australia, we do not have enough aviation firefighters to provide the protection for air travellers that’s required by international aviation regulation,” UFU Aviation Branch Secretary Wes Garrett said.

”This presents a significant risk to the safety and welfare of both the travelling community and firefighters and our members urgently want Airservices to address this problem.”

It comes as the Transport Workers Union has accused Qantas of depriving airline staff a vote in the annual general meeting held on Friday.

“Under Joyce, Qantas management has always focused on its shareholders at the expense of its workers and customers at great detriment to the airline, but now even shareholders are being swindled by the Qantas dictatorship,” TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine told reporters on Friday.

Qantas shareholders endorsed a recovery plan that could result in a potential multimillion-dollar bonus for Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.

It forms part of the equity-based plan to replace annual cash bonuses to keep key executives on board with Mr Joyce likely to pocket a $3.6m bonus.

“Why does the CEO who has presided over one of the worst customer performances in this company’s history and an airline at its lowest reputational ebb stand to get an $8.7m pay package?” Mr McIntosh said.

“Whichever way shareholders vote today, Alan Joyce will walk away millions of dollars richer, despite having systematically trashed a once-iconic brand.”

Former ground crew worker Don Dixon said he was one of 1600 ground workers “illegally sacked” from the airline during the pandemic and pleaded for the airline to pay compensation.

“For 102 years this company ran like a Swiss watch, never did we get the phone call, ‘Guys come back, do what you do,” he said.

“It would have taken us a few weeks to repair the airline.”

The Federal Court ruled for the second time in June that the outsourcing decision was illegal and found that Qantas breached the Fair Work Act by preventing them from exercising their rights to bargain and take industrial action.

Speaking at the airline’s annual general meeting in Sydney on Friday, chairman Richard Goyder confirmed that Mr Joyce had agreed to stay with Qantas until the end of 2023.

“Not only have we made it through, we’re recovering much faster than anyone expected,” Mr Goyder said.

The Qantas Group is expecting to post a profit of between $1.2 and $1.3 billion for the first half of financial year 2023 – a turn around of almost $3 billion.

Mr Joyce conceded at the meeting that the company had not lived up to its expected “service standard” in recent months.

“The difficulty of switching an industry back on after it has been frozen for over two years is still clear to see at airports and airlines around the world,” Mr Joyce said.

“For several months this year, we weren’t living up to the service standard people rightly expect. There were too many flight delays, long call centre waits and mishandled bags.”