Union acted 'reasonably' in dispute with Qantas: court

A pilots’ union did not act unreasonably in withholding agreement to a Qantas request to pursue external hires to fly its super-jumbo Airbus A380s, a court has ruled.

The airline launched legal action against the Australian and International Pilots Association in April, 2023, claiming it was unreasonably blocking plans to allocate some of its most junior pilots, known as second officers under training, to the coveted roles.

The Airbus A380s are the largest in the airline’s fleet and carry the highest level of potential pay for pilots.

Qantas was seeking to fill 20 positions with the newly trained pilots, rather than draw on pilots already posted to roles flying 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A330 aircraft.

Federal Court Justice Scott Goodman ruled on Friday the union did not act unreasonably in denying the request, while also dismissing a counter claim by the union that it was Qantas which had breached the enterprise agreement.

“Each of the separate questions should be answered ‘No’,” Justice Goodman stated in his reasons.

Justice Goodman noted in his judgment that in February 2023 Qantas announced a profit of $1.45 billion.

The parties are both pursing legal costs over the matter and have been instructed to confer on next steps before it returns to court.

Qantas first approached the union in August 2022 with plans to bypass the senior pilots, stating the airline’s training system was forecast to be at “maximum capacity” for the upcoming four years.

Pilots who are allocated to a different aircraft type must be retrained and cannot commence flying until they have successfully completed the aircraft-specific training.

Qantas head of base operations and flight operations, Douglas Alley, said in correspondence with the union the airline was already forecasting more than 1600 training courses over the four-year period.

“Our training pipeline is at maximum capacity to the extent that we are already training offshore on the A330 and A380,” Mr Alley stated.

“We cannot afford to be releasing second officers off the A330 and B787 in order to fill A380 second officer positions.”

AIPA president Tony Lucas responded by denying the proposed course of action for reasons that it breached the enterprise agreement and “long-standing pilot seniority and allocation system”.

Mr Lucas said in a statement the union is pleased with the courts findings.

“We look forward to engaging constructively with Qantas to address its operational changes,” Mr Lucas said.