- Time is running out for Qantas. It needs to tell Airbus soon whether it’s going to proceed with orders for A350-1000s capable of flying from Sydney to London. This is the “Project Sunrise” to which the carrier often refers. Before saying yes, it needs buy-in from its pilots, who don’t see eye-to-eye with management on how much they should be compensated for these ultra-ultra-longhaul flights.
So now Qantas is threatening to bypass the AIPA union and make a direct offer to rank-and-file pilots, according to the Australian Financial Review. This, of course, infuriates the AIPA. But the airline goes one step in further in threatening to create a “new employment entity, which in other words is a separate non-union pool of pilots, to handle the mission.
In the meantime, another pilot dispute rages within the Qantas Group, this one involving Jetstar. Pilots there threaten more labor unrest, prompting the company to respond with threats to sell some of the carrier’s B787-8s, local media report reports. Jetstar’s core domestic Australia flying by all accounts earns huge profit margins. But it says certain longhaul routes like Sydney-Honolulu and Gold Coast-Tokyo lose money.
IAM Seeks Mediation in Southwest Talks
- Delta on Feb. 14 gave its 90,000 employees a big Valentine’s Day gift. The carrier announced $1.6b in profit sharing. This is the sixth consecutive year Delta has given its employees more than $1b in profit sharing payouts, CEO Ed Bastian said. Most employees will get about 17% of their annual salaries in the pay out, the company said.
To mark the occasion, the carrier unveiled an A321 decked out in a “Thank You” livery (printed and installed by Delta Tech Ops, of course).
- Southwest’s IAM union, which represents passenger service workers, will ask the National Mediation Board in Washington to help advance its contract talks with management. The union accused the airline of imposing “forced overtime” in lieu of adequate staffing. The Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations in the U.S. airline industry, allows for either the company or union to invoke the services of the National Mediation Board to assist with airline contract negotiations.