Qantas ups the PR anti

In the latest Media Release from Qantas:

Qantas will ground a further two wide-body Boeing 767 aircraft on Monday as ongoing industrial action from the Australian Licenced Engineers Association (ALAEA) continues to cause a backlog of maintenance on the Qantas fleet.

The grounding of these two aircraft will see a further 80 domestic flights cancelled over the next month, and the removal of approximately 20,000 seats of capacity. This will mainly impact flights between the eastern states and Perth.

As a direct result of the ongoing ALAEA ban on overtime and work to rule, Qantas has now been forced to ground seven aircraft, cancel around 500 flights and remove approximately 88,000 seats from sale over the next month.

In addition, since union strike action began less than two months ago by the ALAEA and the Transport Workers’ Union more than 60,000 passengers have been directly impacted, with 129 flights cancelled and 321 flights delayed or brought forward.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said the ALAEA was continuing a ban on overtime work which had been in place since September as well as a work to rule, which has caused the backlog of maintenance.

“The ongoing action from the licensed aircraft maintenance engineers’ union means we do not have the manpower to fulfil all of the necessary maintenance on our fleet of aircraft,” Mr Joyce said.

Scource: Qantas Pubic Affairs