Jayne Hrdlicka promises Virgin-Qatar tie-up will create more jobs for pilots and crew in Australia

Virgin pilots and cabin crew will have the chance to work on Qatar Airways flights out of Doha, but unions fear it will be at their detriment.

Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka says pilots and cabin crew employed by the airline will be able to work on Qatar Airways’ flights if the competition watchdog approves their application for a deeper partnership.

As part of the proposed arrangement, Qatar Airways will provide aircraft and crew for flights marketed and sold by Virgin Australia in what’s known as a wet lease.

The arrangement would be for five years initially, with Ms Hrdlicka suggesting there was no way Virgin Australia could operate its own long haul international flights for at least “six or seven years”.

“Given the supply chain issues with new aircraft, with the training of people, building infrastructure systems, there’s a long list of things we don’t have which we would need to have,” Ms Hrdlicka told the Australian Airports Conference in Brisbane on Tuesday.

Although unions have raised concerns about the wet lease deal and what it would mean for local airline workers, Ms Hrdlicka insisted it would actually lead to more jobs at Virgin.

“It’s great for jobs in the long term, and in the short term it means pilots and cabin crew have secondment opportunities to go to Qatar, and learn (how to crew) the A350 and 777,” Ms Hrdlicka said.

“That means we will have to backfill for all those people. So if 40 pilots go to Qatar for 12 or 18 months, we would need 40 more pilots in Australia, and the same goes for cabin crew.

“If I was in my mid-20s and cabin crew I would be all over it, travel the world and have a really fun different experience, and you know your job is secure when you come home. For those two work groups, it’s great.”

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka at the Australian Airports Association conference in Brisbane. Picture: Yme Tulleners

Ms Hrdlicka indicated discussions were taking place with unions to try to smooth the way for Virgin crew to work for Qatar out of Doha, but the Flight Attendants Association of Australia was unconvinced of the merits of the deal.

FAAA national secretary Teri O’Toole said it was not only Virgin cabin crew who could be disadvantaged by the arrangement, but Qantas as well. 

She said if Virgin wanted to provide opportunities for cabin crew to fly long haul international, they should be pushing for a “dry lease” where Qatar provided the aircraft but not the crew.

“This open-ended wet lease arrangement will make it harder for Qantas to compete on the international stage because they can’t afford to operate at a loss, and we are concerned it will push Qantas to strike up a similar arrangement with Emirates, which would be disastrous for employees,” Ms O’Toole said.

“Qantas is restricted by the Qantas Sale Act, which limits foreign ownership to 49 per cent.”

She said there were many details to be worked out in relation to any secondment opportunities, the most important of which was pay rates and conditions for Australian workers.

“Qatar pays its crew about $26 an hour, which is well below what flight attendants in Australia are paid,” said Ms O’Toole.

“Then there is the matter of Qatari law. I wouldn’t want to send my daughter to Doha for a year, and there are inherent dangers for any gay cabin crew in a country where homosexuality is a crime.”

The Australian Federation of Air Pilots was more comfortable with the arrangement, but urged the ACCC to end the wet lease flying after three years, or at least commit to a dry lease arrangement after three years at the completion of the five year deal.

“The wet lease is outsourcing air rights reserved for Australian airlines to foreign owned airframes utilising overseas labour,” said the AFAP’s submission to the ACCC.

“If indefinite, this has the potential to undermine public benefits from Australian airlines international air rights by limiting the number of jobs created for pilots and other employees in the aviation sector in Australia.”

Qantas has also raised concerns about the use of Qatari labour on flights marketed as Virgin Australia services, and what it would mean to their ability to compete.

Virgin and Qatar are seeking approval to operate an extra 28 flights a week between Australia and Doha, from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

An application by Qatar to the federal government to operate those extra flights in its own right was refused last year, because it was “not in the national interest”.

Originally published as Jayne Hrdlicka promises Virgin-Qatar tie-up will create more jobs for pilots and crew in Australia