A stoush is brewing between Qantas and some of its flight attendants over a new route to New York, which staff say should be crewed by Australians.
Qantas launched 16-hour flights from Auckland to New York on Wednesday to replace its pre-pandemic route, which involved a stopover in Los Angeles. The airline is now being criticised over its choice to use New Zealand-based cabin crew on the route, with staff claiming the carrier made the decision because the Kiwi flight attendants have fewer rest entitlements.
The head of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia Teri O’Toole said Qantas’s decision to crew the route with New Zealanders and not existing members of the airline’s Australian workforce was a “slap in the face”.
Qantas will operate three weekly flights from Sydney to New York, increasing to four per week from October. The route will transit through Auckland for the first time, before a 16+ hour flight direct to New York.Credit: James D Morgan
“After Australian taxpayers gave Qantas more than $2 billion in support to retain their staff during COVID-19, it seems like a slap in the face that Australian workers have been denied this work,” O’Toole said.
The association surveyed its members in March 2023 to see whether they would consider amending their rest entitlements to secure one third of the flying on the JFK route. According to an email from the association to its members, the confidential survey was prompted by a request from Qantas to consider the proposal.
An excerpt from the email sent by the Flight Attendants Association of Australia to members in March.
The New Zealand-based flight attendants – who are employed by Qantas subsidiary Jet Connect – recently voted to reduce the minimum amount of rest airlines are required to provide staff in the event of an 18 hour flight from 50 hours to 40 hours. The association believes this is the reason the New Zealand staff were chosen to work the route.
“It is a slippery slope to chase destinations by reducing your conditions. Of course our members would like to go to New York and carry Australians, but at what cost. The community should be outraged that after making $2.5 billon in profit, Qantas would choose and encourage work groups to reduce agreed conditions,” O’Toole said.
Qantas denied the difference in risk entitlements was the reason for the crewing decision, and said the airline had actually increased the NZ-based crew’s rest entitlements from 24 hours to 40 to bring them in line with the carrier’s fatigue risk management program. Given the route will commence with three services a week before increasing to four, the crew on the JFK service will have more than 49 hours of scheduled rest over two nights before their return flight to Auckland.
An airline spokesperson said it had employed New Zealand cabin crew for more than two decades, “given the longest leg of the flight to New York departs from Auckland, it makes sense for them to operate this service”.
“We’re hiring more than 1400 Australian-based cabin crew this year alone and promoting hundreds more as additional wide-body aircraft enter service, and we continue to ramp up international flying.”
The association’s disillusionment follows accusations from the Australian and International Pilots Association the carrier had “outsourced the spirit of Australia” after unveiling a new agreement with Finnair earlier this month.
Qantas committed to lease two Airbus A330s from Finnair to help the airline meet its goal of returning to 100 per cent of pre-COVID-19 international flying capacity by March 2024. The agreement to lease the aircraft stipulates Qantas will also use Finnair pilots and cabin crew – known as “wet leasing” – for the first two years of the four-year arrangement.
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