Qantas and Jetstar will carry over 500,000 people on 4,600 domestic flights across Australia between Thursday and Monday.
Last weekend we carried over 350,000 people on 2,800 flights, so while it’s busy and there are some delays at airports and with baggage, our people are absolutely delivering.
Both airlines have been preparing for the busy travel period with more staff rostered on and larger international aircraft being flown on some domestic routes (e.g. Jetstar 787 Dreamliners are flying from Melbourne to the Gold Coast and Cairns).
As with a lot of industries around Australia, aviation is being impacted by the isolation requirements for close contacts of COVID cases. We’re seeing between 20 and 50 percent of employees in some areas are unable to work as a result.
To help increase staffing levels the airlines and several suppliers are utilising state government exemptions for COVID close contact isolation requirements for some work groups (with added safeguards in place, as per government requirements).
We’ll also have around 200 corporate head office managers providing additional support in baggage areas and check-in at Sydney and Melbourne airports.
Response to union claims
We reject the union’s claims that these disruptions are linked to the decision 18 months ago to outsource our ground handling at airports.
The current situation with COVID-related staff shortages is happening across many areas of the aviation industry including in other airlines, in airport security screening and in other countries.
