Interesting way to staff an airline

[Guest M. McRae]

Kiwis manning Qantas flights

By GEOFF EASDOWN

16sep03

QANTAS has launched tough new measures to cut its New Zealand losses by hiring kiwi pilots and cabin crews to fly the Tasman.

The move is believed to be saving Qantas tens of thousands of dollars on pay rates otherwise paid to crews based in Australia.

The kiwis fly Qantas jets and wear the corporate uniform and fly separate daily services to Australia from Wellington and Christchurch.

Qantas yesterday confirmed the workers were recruited under NZ labour hire agreements and were employed by its NZ subsidiary, JetConnect.

JetConnect is a Qantas-owned but NZ-registered company that holds and maintains the airline's NZ Air Operations Certificate.

The company exists only on paper to comply with NZ law relating to airlines operating domestic services.

Before the new crews were recruited, JetConnect had 200 pilots and cabin crew flying domestic services for Qantas.

The new kiwi-manned flights, introduced on September 1, were foreshadowed by Qantas rivals during last month's NZ Commerce Commission hearings into the proposed alliance between Qantas and Air NZ.

The move comes amid an already announced push by the Australian carrier to slash costs and employ up to a quarter of its workforce as casuals.

The Transport Workers' Union, one of 10 unions covering 39,900 Qantas employees, has agreed to the deal which is to be put to members this week.

An Australian-based Qantas pilot said last night the recruiting of NZ personnel had caused "much discontent".

The pilot said his 14 kiwi counterparts earned about $110,000 a year -- as much as $50,000 below the pay rates of similarly qualified Australians.

Qantas yesterday confirmed it had hired 14 pilots and 25 cabin crew.

"They are NZ-based and begin and end their flights each day in NZ," a Qantas spokesman said.

The spokesman said the appointments helped save meals and accommodation costs which would have to be paid to Australians.

The new staff fly 22 of the 112 trans-Tasman flights Qantas operates each week between both countries.

By recruiting the NZ crews, Qantas has followed up threats by CEO Geoff Dixon to become an aggressive player in NZ if its proposed alliance with Air NZ was blocked by corporate regulators.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last week denied Qantas and Air NZ their joint application to merge trans-Tasman services.

The only hope the carriers have of resurrecting their proposal rests with a reversal of regulatory policy by the NZ Commerce Commission later this month and a successful appeal to the Australian Competition Tribunal.

Qantas shares yesterday fell 2c to $3.29.