Jetstar Outlines Plans To Protect Customer Travel This Weekend

Comments to be attributed to Jetstar Group CEO, Gareth Evans:

The Australian Federation of Air Pilots' (AFAP) work stoppages this weekend are completely unjustifiable and cynically timed to hurt travellers at the busiest travel time of the year.

To protect the weekend plans of tens of thousands of customers, teams across Jetstar have worked around the clock to develop a proactive contingency plan.

To minimise the impact on customers by the four-hour stop work periods, we are consolidating some services, up-gauging aircraft, re-timing flights and Qantas and QantasLink will operate a number of supplementary services.

Overall, Jetstar will cancel 44 services on Saturday 14 December and 46 services on Sunday 15 December and Jetstar will contact impacted customers from today. On average Jetstar operates about 370 flights a day.

We expect to get 95 per cent of our customers on their way on the same day.

Any customers travelling from 13 December to 20 December can also request a full refund prior to flying.

We know the union's actions are creating uncertainty for travellers, but if we accept an effective 15 per cent net increase in pay that the union is demanding, there will be significant upward pressure on the low fares our customers rely on and we will be forced to review our investment in new aircraft and new destinations.

We remain committed to reaching a new agreement to support the great work our people do every day, but not any cost. Strong arm action from the AFAP will not change our position on this.

Again, we say to the union: come to the table with a reasonable offer that is fair, and which also ensures the future of low fares travel for Australians.

Changes to Jetstar flights this weekend:

• Jetstar has re-timed flights, up-gauged aircraft and transferred some passengers to Qantas flights to get as many customers as possible away on their journeys.
• We expect around 80 per of our flights will operate as scheduled.
• 44 services will be cancelled on Saturday and 46 on Sunday with customers being re-accommodated on alternative flights.
• Customers can also request a refund direct from their text or email notification if they no longer wish to travel.
• The impact to Jetstar's international flights is expected to be minimal with limited delays and cancellations planned.

On background

Pilots

• The AFAP is demanding an effective 15% pay increase which is well above the 3 per cent Jetstar is prepared to offer and above private sector annual wage growth of around 2%.
• On average, Jetstar captains earn more than $300,000 p.a. (includes super and allowances) plus discretionary bonuses.
• Just two of the union's allowance claims combined would see the highest paid pilots receiving an additional $60,000 a year.
• Jetstar has 830 pilots in Australia. A subset of these pilots are members of the AFAP and it is this group that is eligible to take protected industrial action.
• Australia's annual private sector wage growth is 2.2% (13th November, ABS: Australian annual wage growth announcement can be found here).

Ground crew

• The TWU applied for a protected action ballot in circumstances where they only provided their full list of claims two weeks prior to applying for a protected action ballot.
• We have strong contingency plans in place to mitigate the union's action, which is supported by less than half of our ground crew.
• The TWU's one-year deal equates to a 12% increase in costs, including a 6% wages and superannuation increase.
• Approximately one third of our ground crew team are full-time with many earning on average above $90,000 a year.
• Approximately two thirds of our ground crew team work part time, earning on average $63,000 a year.
• Jetstar has 375 ground crew in Australia.