Qantas takes former pilot to court for alleged industrial espionage ahead of a job switch to Virgin

Qantas has alleged that one of its top pilots stole confidential documents about its commercial strategy before he quit to join rival Virgin Australia.

Qantas has launched legal action against a former senior pilot who is alleged to have stolen confidential information about the airline’s fleet and commercial strategy before resigning to work for arch rival Virgin Australia.

Luke Fogarty began his career with Qantas in 2007, serving as deputy chief pilot for QantasLink before being promoted to a senior management role as head of E190 commercial, operations and performance.

E190s are Embraer jets Qantas wet leases from Alliance Aviation to operate regional flights.

Mr Fogarty announced his resignation on September 17 after accepting a senior flight operations role with Virgin Australia, which is in the process of buying its own fleet of E190s.

A statement of claim filed by Qantas in the Federal Court alleges that some time between September 15 and 17, Mr Fogarty “copied several thousand megabytes of electronic documents” from the airline’s file servers to a laptop, from which he transmitted the items to his personal iCloud storage account, or a personal email.

Qantas says the documents represent “valuable information” that would take a third party considerable time, effort and cost to reproduce independently.

“The confidential documents concern Qantas’s commercially sensitive business affairs, including aircraft procurement, commercial strategy and operations management,” the statement of claim says.

“The documents are subject to measures put in place by Qantas to prevent them from disclosure, are not in the public domain and are confidential to Qantas.”

Former Qantas senior manager Luke Fogarty, centre, with Qantas chief pilot Richard Tobiano and manager of line operations Nick Collie in January 2020.

Among the documents are agreements signed by Qantas and Alliance for the operation of E190s; Qantas route manual supplements for Boeing 737s, 787s and A380s and A330s; and an airport ground handling manual.

“The vast and detailed extent of the information contained in the documents and concerning several facets of the Qantas business as a large-scale provider of commercial aviation services, is such that it may reasonably be presumed to exceed Mr Fogarty’s general know-how,” the Qantas claim says.

As head of E190 commercial, operations and performance, Mr Fogarty was responsible for several senior executive functions, including financial management, project management and governance, contract and performance management.

Qantas says Mr Fogarty’s employment contract with the airline required him to use confidential information only in the proper performance of his duties, and to take all reasonable and necessary precautions to prevent disclosure of such information.

Qantas alleges Mr Fogarty was in breach of his contract, and claims the airline has “suffered damage to its business, goodwill and reputation”.

It is claimed Qantas suffered damage “arising from the use he was capable of making of the document in his role at Virgin, and the springboard advantage that he is afforded by reason of his ­breaches”.

An injunction sought by Qantas and granted by the Federal Court ordered Mr Fogarty to destroy any hard copies of the documents and delete the electronic data to the extent it could not be retrieved.

Qantas also asked the court for damages and compensation for losses caused by Mr Fogarty’s alleged breach of confidence.

It’s understood Mr Fogarty is not due to take up his role at Virgin Australia until the New Year, in line with his non-compete clause in his Qantas contract.

Virgin Australia is not a party to the proceedings between Mr Fogarty and Qantas, which are due to return to the Federal Court on November 18.

It comes after the head of the Qantas pilots’ association in October criticised plans for Qatar Airways to operate international flights on behalf of Virgin Australia, saying it was a “sham arrangement” that would have no benefit to Australian workers.

The proposed wet lease deal due to begin in mid 2025 would result in Virgin selling tickets on flights to Doha operated by Qatar Airways’ aircraft and crew.

Virgin Australia reported a $545.4m statutory profit before tax for the 2024 financial year, up 322 per cent on the previous year.

Documents lodged with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission show the result was boosted by the expiry of $280.7m worth of future flight credits.

The airline’s US owner, Bain Capital, pocketed the lion’s share of $366.5m in dividends declared within the financial year, and a further $8.7m in unfranked ­dividends.

Bain Capital holds a 93 per cent stake in the company, and the balance is split between the Virgin Group (5 per cent) and Queensland Investments Corporation (QIC).

Virgin Australia is currently seeking Foreign Investment Review Board approval to sell a 25 per cent stake to Qatar Airways for an undisclosed sum.

Virgin has asked the competition watchdog to fast-track its decision on a deeper relationship with Qatar Airways, so more flights to Doha can get under way from June 2025.

Virgin Australia says a decision is needed by November so it can start selling the flights.