Qantas to cut 100 domestic flights due to strikes
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Qantas has announced it will ground five aircraft and cutaround 100 domestic flights per week due to ongoing industrial action. Theairline took the decision due to a shortfall in maintenance capacity, followingthe continuing strikes held by the Australian Licenced Aircraft MaintenanceEngineers (ALAEA) union.
Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas confirmed today that four Boeing737 aircraft and one Boeing 767 would remain grounded for at least a month. Thereduction in flying will impact domestic services to and from Adelaide, Sydney,Brisbane and Melbourne.
“Regrettably, the industrial action from the licensedaircraft maintenance engineers’ union is now making it difficult to clearmaintenance tasks in a timely fashion,” he explained. “It takes about 15,000hours per week to maintain the fleet. We are seeing a shortfall in maintenancecapacity of over 1,200 hours per week or about 8%. This means a number ofaircraft are not available each day which has caused a decline in schedulereliability”.
Tomorrow’s ALAEA strike is expected to affect more than7,600 passengers, as Qantas cancels 17 flights and delays a further 32.Combined with today’s Transport Workers’ Union strike, an estimated 60,000passengers are expected to have their flights disrupted across the two days.