Regional Round-Up
Qantas signs wage freeze with engineers
November 1st 2014
Qantas Airways has reached a four-year pay deal with its aircraft engineers, which includes an 18-month wage freeze, followed by annual increases of 3%. Read More » The settlement is a major step towards achieving the goal of Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce — freezing pay across the company, in a strategy to strip A$2 billion ($1.76 billion) in costs from the business within three years. Joyce announced a “confronting” A$2.8 billion net loss in its last financial year, to June 30. Qantas wants to strike similar deals with its short-haul pilots and ground staff, but the latest talks have shown no signs of an early resolution.
Meanwhile, Qantas has unveiled a new fully-flat business class seat for its A330 fleet, the first ever to allow for a partial recline and mattress installation during take-off and landing. The new seat will be progressively rolled out from December to the end of 2016. Rival carrier, Virgin Australia has announced plans to outfit its A330 and B777 fleets with new premium cabins. Its first installation will not be completed until March.
