Qantas eases maintenance, financial problems but faces turmoil on several fronts

Qantas management appears to be making moves to appease its restive maintenance department with the sudden departure of engineering chief John Walker and a new roster for its main Sydney base.

Walker, who was responsible for all Qantas’ line maintenance in Australia and offshore, had left to “be closer to his family”, the airline said. Its engineers held him responsible for junking the long-established roster of four days on/three days off three years ago, replacing it with five days on/two days off.

Along with pay freezes and low-ball wage offers, the roster change has been a key cause of bubbling resentment that has seen engineers shun overtime shifts. Morale is so dire that unlimited overtime is now on offer to Qantas engineers.

“Some of their crucial employees are so fucking pissed off that they don’t give a fuck if a plane flies or not, if it costs the airline money, if it damages the airlines reputation,” one engineer said. “Qantas is playing with fire. With the wrong employee group.”

A new roster, from October 6, provides five days on/four days off.

Today, Qantas announced a dramatic turnaround in its profitability for the current financial year — predicting a first-half profit of between $1.2bn to $1.3bn — and informed the ASX that cancellations had dropped from 4% to 2.4% in September. Jetstar had suffered from having six of its 11 Boeing 787s out of action, it said.

Both Qantas and its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar are still short of aviation engineers, according to multiple sources inside the company, which contributes to daily cancellations and consistent delays.

Jetstar continues to be the worst offender with between six and 20-plus cancellations every day. On Monday, 11 Jetstar flights were cancelled, and another nine on Tuesday — all domestic — according to global flight-tracking site FlightAware.

Engineering problems are believed to be behind the cancellation of Qantas flagship QF1 flight to London 10 days ago, leaving more than 500 passengers stuck. Due to the shortage of engineers, and management’s inability to find enough to do overtime over the NRL grand final weekend, the A380 was forced to sit in a hangar for five days waiting for an engine replacement. This delay was effectively down to rock-bottom morale in the division, engineers said.

Both the airlines cut back on maintenance staff during COVID when the fleet was grounded — Qantas by 35%, according to the engineers’ union. Jetstar closed its base in Newcastle, NSW, deciding to move its operations to Melbourne and nearby Avalon where much of its short-range fleet was grounded during the pandemic.

Despite Jetstar offering to move staff to Victoria, few took up the offer, company insiders said. This has left Jetstar short dozens of engineers in a national and global shortage.

Jetstar said it did not have “demographic stats of our engineering and tech crew resourcing”.

The roster fix — and Walker’s departure — has brought some relief to engineers in Sydney but they are negotiating on pay, and Qantas is staring down the barrel of concerted industrial action, including form flight attendants, that would dramatically interfere with its services even more. 

Flight Attendant’s Association of Australia (FAAA) federal secretary Teri O’Toole claimed Qantas was using the introduction of new aircraft to force new contracts upon cabin crew. The company has previously used a similar tactic on pilots.

“The Qantas deals would extend duty lengths, while at the same time reducing rest provisions, all while not even guaranteeing work on the new aircraft,” the FAAA warned in a statement.

“Cabin crew have raised concerns that the proposal would significantly impair their fatigue management,” the statement continued.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) is seeking an 18% pay rise that would stretch over six years, retrospectively taking in the 2020-21 pay freeze years. Management is offering 6%. Qantas says the union claim would cost it $10 million a year.

In contrast, CEO Alan Joyce stands to earn $8.7 million for last year and the executive bonus pool this year will be north of $50 million. A Qantas retention scheme for management staff — run during the 2020-21 financial year and dependent on hitting targets by June 30 2023 — was worth about $200 million.

The ALAEA commenced industrial action last month, albeit only at this stage in the form of a one-minute strike. This industrial action applies to Qantas, Jetstar and Qantas’ regional network.

“The airlines then understand we can strike at any time after giving the requisite notice,” secretary Steve Purvinas said in an update to his members last week.

“For each airline, two months are provided for them to present reasonable offers. If none are presented, our harder-hitting protected industrial action will be deployed. This may not occur immediately after the two-month grace period.”

Qantas also remains in negotiations with flight crew and ground staff unions over its blanket five-year, 1.2%-a-year pay offer.

At present all divisions of Qantas are struggling to recruit licensed aviation maintenance engineers and are opting for lower-paid non-licensed staff, most recently employing 15 in Sydney. These engineers are not certified by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to sign off on engineering work. Non-licenced engineers earn substantially less than the $180,000 salary of their licensed counterparts.

There are also continuing problems at Qantas’ much-lauded $30 million custom-built maintenance facility at Los Angeles Airport, opened in 2017 with much fanfare and attended by two cabinet ministers: then foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop and her trade counterpart Steve Ciobo.

Sources say there is high staff turnover in LA, including staff who have been brought to Australia to train, because Qantas pays less than many other LA-based crews. Qantas said that only 10% of its heavy maintenance is carried out offshore but this is critical heavy maintenance of its long-haul aircraft. Los Angeles was custom-built for the double-deck jumbo Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787s.

Despite the facility being nominally standalone, Qantas has regularly sent licensed engineers from Australia to troubleshoot in LA. Qantas was the only Australian airline to carry out heavy maintenance in Australia.

Qantas declined to comment on specific questions relating to its engineering division and Los Angeles facility. Both Qantas and Jetstar said they would have fresh statistics showing improved performance in “coming days”.