‘Fed up’ pilots want a flight plan from Qantas

As Qantas A380s gather dust in a US desert, 235 stood-down pilots warn they can’t be expected to wait until late 2023 to fly again.

A380s in the Mojave Desert. Pilots have warned Qantas they are struggling with indefinite stand down and want answers. Picture: Supplied.

More than 200 A380 pilots are pushing Qantas to end the mental anguish of being stood down indefinitely, saying they need to know what their future holds.

While many of their peers have returned to work in recent months, flying the airline’s other wide-body aircraft on domestic and trans-Tasman routes, the 235 A380 pilots remain in limbo.

The Qantas fleet of 12 superjumbos has been mothballed in the California desert, with the four-engine aircraft not expected to return to service until late 2023.

Australian and International Pilots Association president Murray Butt, an A380 captain, said it was unrealistic and unfair to expect them to wait three years to return to work.

“I’m fed up,” said Captain Butt, who has taken a job driving buses to make ends meet while stood down.

“Qantas needs to make a decision about our future – whether we’re going to retrain on another aircraft. We can’t sit around till November 2023.”

Despite “positive noises” from Qantas, Captain Butt said AIPA was yet to see any concrete evidence that the mental and financial wellbeing of A380 pilots was being seriously considered.

“They’re making noises like ‘we’re listening, we’re working on it’, but that is the continual line we’ve heard all along. It’s getting tired,” he said.

Posts on an internal messaging platform known as Yammer expressed deep frustration at the current situation and warned of serious mental health issues among pilots.

One claimed that many crew had not received so much as a supportive phone call from Qantas since being stood down in April 2020, resulting in “increased anxiety, depression, stress and confusion”.

“The real outcomes? Livelihoods lost, home lost, families torn apart, medical conditions exacerbated, feelings of abandonment, loss of hope and we fear what comes next,” wrote the pilot.

“The solutions? Useful work given to your stood-down staff, not outsourced. Break the isolation fatigue by standing up more staff that are currently stood down and in despair.”

Qantas chief pilot Dick Tobiano said he was well aware of the incredibly tough situation facing international pilots, and the airline was in “constant discussions with government about international borders”.

“As we’ve said many times, we are ready to fly internationally as soon as borders are open and we are committed to bringing back A380 flying as soon as it was viable,” said Captain Tobiano.

“In the meantime we are providing resources and support to help our stood-down crews. We are also fortunate that the government has provided some financial support until at least October for our people whose work is impacted by international border closures.”

Flight operations base managers were understood to have made 7000 welfare and check-up calls since the pandemic struck.

Although some Qantas pilots had landed three-year contracts with Alliance Aviation to fly Embraer 190s on regional routes for QantasLink, they were in the minority.

Under the wet lease agreement, Alliance was not obligated to use current Qantas pilots and was hiring from a pool of ex-airline crew, including Virgin Australia, Cathay Pacific, Cathay Dragon and Rex.

“Virgin Australia used to operate Embraers, so we’ve hired a number of those pilots,” said Alliance managing director Scott McMillan.

“We’re under no obligation to recruit from Qantas, but we do expect to recruit more as we work towards our target number (of 300 pilots).”