Flights by Qantas in jeopardy

UNION action, maintenance issues and the largest intake of pilots in the history of Qantas are behind recent flight cancellations in the North.

A Qantas spokesman admitted there had been a higher rate of cancellations in some regional ports.

In late October, multiple Qantas flights to and from Townsville were cancelled. All were Boeing 717- 200 aircraft. Flight QF1794 from Brisbane was cancelled on November 10.

Qantas is blaming maintenance taking longer than usual, crew shortages and other “operational issues”.

“To improve levels of reliability, we’ve been making some adjustments to parts of our domestic schedule, which include consolidating flights during non- peak times to free up aircraft and putting larger aircraft on key routes,” the spokesman said.

“Qantas maintains reserve crew who are on call in case rostered crew are unavailable ( e. g. due to illness).

“These have been stretched re- cently, triggering some cancellations. One reason for this is the need for crew to serve as trainers following one of the largest intakes of new pilots in Qantas’s history.”

Cobham, which provides pilots for the Qantas 717s, has an open enterprise bargaining agreement ( EBA).

The Federation of Air Pilots union filed for protected industrial action on August 10 but Qantas said that was not a primary cause of disruptions.

“We are following these EBA negotiations closely as Cobham and their pilots move towards an agreement,” the Qantas spokesman said.

A Cobham spokesman confirmed there was an EBA open with its pilots.

Townsville Airport chief executive officer Kevin Gill said delays and cancellations of Qantas services had adversely impacted on travellers.

“Townsville Airport has discussed these on a number of occasions with Qantas,” he said.

Qantas announced yesterday it would reduce flights to Mackay in a push to reduce late cancellations.