Qantas strike: Airport delays possible as hundreds of maintenance engineers walk off the job over pay dispute

Hundreds of Qantas engineers have walked off the job in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, threatening to cause Friday flight chaos during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Qantas says it’s working to minimise disruptions to travel plans as hundreds of aircraft engineers walk off the job for 24 hours at major airports around the country amid long-running pay dispute.

The airline said it had been notified about work stoppages by its maintenance engineers on Friday, but said it expected to have the resources to cover the flights to mitigate any delays.

Another 24-hour stoppage is also slated for next Friday, December 20.

The engineers walked off the job at 3.30am, local time, on Friday.

The Qantas Engineers Alliance said they would not return to the tarmac until 7.30am on Saturday.

Ahead of the strike, a Qantas spokesperson said the airline had put “a number of contingencies in place” to ensure customers’ travel plans weren’t disrupted by the industrial action, but said customers should give themselves more time to get through security at this time of year.

“Our teams are working hard to ensure that this industrial action has minimal impact on customers’ holiday plans and we have put a number of contingencies in place and extra resourcing on the ground to ensure our customers get away as planned,” the spokesperson said.

“As always at this time of year our aircraft are full and airports are busy so we urge customers to give themselves more time to get through security and get to their aircraft.”

The strike comes at one of the busiest travel times of the year, less than two weeks before Christmas, amid a bitter and protracted dispute between the Qantas and the trio of unions, which are calling for a 25 per cent pay rise for workers.

Negotiations for an enterprise bargaining agreement have been ongoing since April, but the bodies could not reach a deal before the most recent agreement expired in June.

The Qantas Engineers Alliance, which is made up of the Australian Workers Union (AWU), Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), is seeking a 15 per cent pay rise upfront and a 5 per cent increase per year

The alliance accused Qantas of lying and misleading behaviour during wage negotiations and says it has refused to budge on its offer of a 3 per cent wage increase per year over the course of three years.

AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy said “Qantas is to blame if there’s any disruption to commuters over the holiday period”. It said the airline had six weeks to “so what they said they would”.

AWU national secretary Paul Farrow, meanwhile, said engineers felt they had been treated with “persistent disrespect” by the airline.

ETU national secretary Michael Wright said the industrial action would end “right now” if Qantas came to the table with a fair pay deal.

Qantas, however, says its proposal was a “competitive package” that would allow its engineers to up-skill, progress their careers and “earn significantly more over the next few years”.

Sydney Airport, which is bracing for its busiest domestic travel day since 2019, said it would work with Qantas to implement their “contingency plans to minimise the impact on passengers”.

As of 8.30am on Friday, Qantas said more than 97 per cent of its domestic flights had departed on time, but reiterated the need for customers to prepare for “unplanned maintenance issues, weather, or other events (that) may impact operations on the day”.

If Qantas does not come to the table recommence negotiations and land on an agreement, the unions say they will repeat the strike action next Friday, December 20.