Outsourcing and layoffs have left Qantas with a shortage of pilots and engineers

The serial cancellations and delays at Jetstar, its parent Qantas and Australia’s other main commercial carriers Virgin Blue and Rex have exposed dire shortages of pilots, engineers and air traffic controllers in the aviation sector.

Under Alan Joyce, Qantas has outsourced significant maintenance functions offshore without direct Qantas quality control, raising concerns about Australia’s enviable air safety record.

The chaos at Jetstar has continued over the weekend — dozens of flights were cancelled domestically as were a handful of international flights, with all Australia’s other main commercial airlines cancelling flights too.

Further industrial action due to start Monday was averted as outsourced baggage handler Dnata, an arm of Emirates Airlines, made a pay offer for baggage handlers with the Transport Workers’ Union, securing an immediate pay increase of 12.6% and a total overall increase to 17.2%. But the scare has laid bare the problems of Qantas’ outsourcing program as it tries to screw down costs to drive up its share price and management bonuses.

Qantas management is in urgent negotiations with its engineers, who began low-level industrial action last week and want a better roster at the Sydney base and more than the 6% over five years (1.2% per year) on offer.

The engineers are stretched to breaking point after a pandemic redundancy program cut 35% of staff at Qantas alone. Similar cuts were made at Jetstar and both cohorts are struggling to keep the airline’s planes in the air, a significant part of the reason for dozens of flight cancellations each day across the group, engineers said.

Meanwhile, Joyce received a 5% pay rise of $287,000 in the 2022 financial year, bringing his total pay package up to more than $5.5 million according to the company’s annual report released last Friday. Senior executives received similar rises, yet a spokesperson for the company has said the carrier cannot afford a better pay deal for engineers.

The shortage of pilots

The global pilot shortage is having consequences everywhere. In November 2021 the NSW government said Australia needed an additional 11,000 pilots by 2038, and international demand for pilots trained in Australia is set to increase.

Former Qantas pilot of 37 years Perry McNeil said smaller airlines with lower salary budgets were struggling to get pilots, and overseas airlines were trying to capture pilots from Australia.

“Those airline pilot packages on offer can be very competitive and alluring, at a time when Qantas and Jetstar are in industrial arguments and squabbles with their current pilots,” McNeil, who took a redundancy during the pandemic, told Crikey.

“The newer industrial agreements have slashed the wages for younger pilots compared to their legacy colleagues.”

Qantas said pilots for the airline had the “best pay and conditions” in Australia.

The company has a program of putting pilots on new, lower-paid deals as it introduces new aircraft such as the upcoming A35, A321XLR and A220.

US freight airline Atlas conducted a roadshow in Australia in July, and pilots say it recruited from Australian airlines with pay offers of up to three times the salaries available in Australia.

At present Qantas is recruiting pilots from Cathay Pacific and Gulf Air, who let Australian pilots go during the pandemic, but as the aviation sector returns to normal those airlines will return to recruiting on better salaries and packages than offered in Australia.

As the Qantas group works its pilots harder and pays them less, McNeil is concerned about safety issues as crews move to a new fatigue risk management system, “a newer, theoretical, scientifically based, data-driven” means of monitoring fatigue-related safety risks.

“Now companies can push for more and more hours in the air and towards limits,” he said.

“Strikingly, this is all based on fatigue reporting. This is made worse in Australia because of the tyranny of distance and the multiple time zone changes. One thing you really don’t want is a tired pilot flying your aircraft.”

A Qantas spokesperson said that pilot hours are regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and its fatigue management system, developed with Qantas management and not pilots.

“These limits have not changed since before the pandemic,” the spokesperson said. “Managing fatigue is a joint responsibility and we actively encourage pilots to self-report if they are unfit to fly.”

Qantas is trying to negotiate a new enterprise agreement with Jetstar pilots. The Australian and International Pilots Association president Tony Lucas sent a note to members on September 8 expressing the association’s frustration and describing Qantas’ approach to negotiations as “shambolic and dysfunctional”.

The shortage of engineers

Engineers union representatives have told Crikey the global shortage of aviation engineers needs to be urgently addressed. Qantas has decimated its once world-leading apprenticeship program and, alongside Virgin, sacked hundreds of experienced engineers during the pandemic. The average age of senior Australian licenced aeronautical maintenance engineers (LAME) is 54.

McNeil said Australia historically “owned” the LAME space, but we were no longer training enough engineers so now airlines were outsourcing: “It’s a bit like bringing medical doctors in from overseas, and you’ve got to ask, are you getting the best-trained and cutting-edge doctor or somebody just to fill a gap?”

The Qantas spokesperson said aviation was one of the “most closely scrutinised industries” in Australia and the carrier would never compromise on safety.

“Just last week CASA reiterated that it has confidence that Qantas is operating safely,” the spokesperson said.

The Transport Workers’ Union has called for a Safe and Secure Skies Commission to raise standards and keep skilled aviation workers in jobs as the sector recovers.

For Australia’s airline customers, the future could look all too like the present. Australian airline passengers have no specific industry regulator, protection or guarantees, unlike passengers in the European Union, New Zealand and the United States. It’s time the government stepped in.

This article was first published by Crikey.