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Qantas Airways
A judge on Monday fined Qantas Airways 90 million Australian dollars (USD 59 million) for illegally firing more than 1,800 ground staff at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The penalty is in addition to the AUD 120 million (USD 78 million) in compensation that Australia's biggest airline had already agreed to pay its former employees. Australian Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said the outsourcing of 1,820 baggage handler and cleaner jobs at Australian airports in late 2020 was the largest and most significant contravention of relevant Australian labour laws in their 120-year history. Qantas agreed in December last year to pay AUD 120 million (USD 78 million) in compensation to former staff after seven High Court judges unanimously rejected the Sydney-based airline's appeal against the judgment that outsourcing their jobs was illegal. The Transport Workers Union, which took the airline to court, had argued the airline should receive the largest fine available AUD 121,212,000 (
Preparing to expand its international operations with long-haul flights, IndiGo will be focusing on expanding partnerships with overseas carriers and joining an airline alliance is not a priority. IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline works with different partners in different countries. "Some of the partners are of SkyTeam, some are of Star Alliance, that is not so relevant for us... these partnerships have different roles and functions in the network... we will expand these partnerships, have more codeshares, reciprocal codeshares and we will further build on these partnerships. "(Airline) Alliance is not a priority at this point of time," he told PTI on Tuesday. He was responding to a query on whether IndiGo will be looking to join an airline alliance. Currently, IndiGo has codeshare partnerships with nine airlines -- Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Air France, KLM, Qantas Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Malaysia Airlines, British Airways and Japan Airlines.
An engine failure on a passenger plane taking off from Sydney, Australia on Friday prompted the aircraft to circle before a safe emergency landing, the airline Qantas said. At the same time, a grass fire broke out along one side of a runway, Sydney Airport said in a statement. It was not known if the two events were linked. The fire has been brought under control, but flight delays are expected. Qantas did not say how many passengers were on board the twin jet Boeing 737-800 bound for Brisbane when the engine failed with a loud bang. No injuries were reported. We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support," Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in a statement. We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue. Sydney Airport said its main runway was still in service. The grass fire broke out along the side of a parallel runway which was being .
Qantas, the national carrier of Australia, on Tuesday announced that it is adding flights from Bengaluru to Sydney to cater to the strong demand over the peak holiday season. Between mid-December 2024 and late March 2025, the airline will increase flights from five a week to daily, adding over 12,000 seats between the two cities over the four-month period, Qantas said in a statement. The flights add to Qantas' existing services from Delhi to Melbourne, which operate three days a week. Qantas' flights from India are operated with its fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft with 27 Business Class suites in 1- 2-1 configuration, with each suite featuring direct aisle access and converting into a lie-flat bed. All Qantas international fares include checked baggage allowance, food and beverages and in-flight entertainment as standard with every booking. Qantas recently announced it would accelerate a programme to introduce fast and free' Wi-Fi across its existing fleet of international aircraft,
Qantas Airways lost its challenge to a court ruling on Wednesday that the Australian flag carrier had illegally fired 1,700 baggage handlers, cleaners and other ground staff at the height of pandemic travel disruptions. Seven High Court judges unanimously rejected Qantas' appeal against a Federal Court full-bench decision. That court upheld a Federal Court judge's ruling that the sacking of Qantas staff at 10 Australian airports in 2020 was illegal. The ruling is another major blow for the airline which Australia's consumer watchdog is suing for more than 250 million Australian dollars ($160 million) for allegedly selling thousands of tickets mid-2022 for flights that already been canceled. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission initiated the Federal Court lawsuit two weeks ago for what it considers Australia's most serious-ever breach of consumer law. That prompted Qantas former chief executive Alan Joyce to retire last week two months ahead of schedule. The Transport ...