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Qantas to go after direct pilot vote on Project Sunrise deal
March 6th 2020
Qantas plans to ask its pilots to vote directly on a new workplace agreement as part of efforts to launch ultra-long haul flights from Australia's east coast to London and New York, it was reported this week. Read More »
The airline and the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) – the association representing Qantas pilots – have been in negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) for at least a year.
The Australian newspaper said on March 1 Qantas had ended those talks with no agreement reached. Instead, it would put an offer directly to pilots. The vote is expected to be held in the second half of March with a result known before the end of the month.
AIPA president, Mark Sedgwick, told the newspaper Qantas's "ultra aggressive approach had not been welcomed by a group of loyal and key employees in the airline”.
“The AIPA team has worked hard through this EBA process, especially in the last few weeks, to generate a suitable package,” Sedgwick said in an email to AIPA members, The Australian reported.
“However, in the last few days Qantas advised the AIPA’s package did not meet their business case and therefore they would not agree to it.”
In late 2019, Qantas said it had selected the A350-1000 for the ultra-long haul flights, which it has put under the Project Sunrise banner. It said Airbus was holding delivery slots for 12 aircraft to be delivered in time for flights to commence in 2023, with the order needing to be confirmed by the end of this month.
In February, the Australian carrier said one option to get the Project Sunrise flights off the ground, should there be no agreement with its existing pilot corps, could be the establishment of a separate entity to employ pilots to operate these flights.
Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, told journalists at the airline group's 2019-2020 interim results briefing he had been contacted by a China Southern pilot who said the airline could recruit pilots from other airlines to join Qantas for the Project Sunrise flights.
Nonetheless, airline executives have said the preferred outcome was to reach a deal with pilots. Pilots have expressed concerns about the Qantas fatigue risk management system for Project Sunrise flights.
