Embattled Australian carrier Qantas said yesterday it would hand out 100,000 free flight tickets in a bid to win back passengers after the shock two-day grounding of its global fleet.
About 70,000 travelers were stranded in 22 cities across the world when Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce grounded the airline on Oct. 29 to force an end to months of strike action by pilots, engineers and ground staff.
The gamble paid off for Joyce, with Canberra stepping in to prevent huge damage to the Australian economy by forcing an end to all industrial action at the airline, but furious passengers have vowed never to fly Qantas again.
The firm’s woes deepened on Friday when an engine problem saw a Qantas A380 diverted to Dubai, in an unwelcome reminder of the engine explosion that temporarily grounded its entire superjumbo fleet exactly one year earlier.
Joyce kicked off a huge public relations offensive yesterday with the A$20 million (US$21 million) offer of a free return flight within Australia or between it and New Zealand for every customer stranded by last weekend’s chaos.
“This ticket offer is one of a range of initiatives we will be launching as a way of saying sorry as we move forward into this period of stability,” he said.
About 100,000 tickets have been scheduled for the giveaway, and the offer is open for two years from Dec. 14, with full-page newspaper advertisements urging passengers to “fly with us, on us.”
Joyce said further announcements would soon be made about compensating overseas-based customers and its 8 million frequent flyers.
Qantas has already promised to refund all “reasonable losses” for passengers affected by the drama, and Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said the airline would do “everything possible” to win back the public.
“We will be doing everything possible, bending over backwards to make sure they continue to travel with Australia’s national carrier, Qantas,” she told reporters.
The pilots’ union, which claims the airline is losing a “pilot a day” to rivals such as Emirates, said it would have been “a lot cheaper for them to work with their workforce.”
Tony Sheldon, head of the ground staff union, said it was mulling a court challenge to the strike ban this week, pending legal advice.
Irish-born Joyce, 45, worked at rival carrier Ansett when it went to the wall in 2001, costing 17,000 jobs, and he said the experience had scarred him.
“There were suicides, that was horrendous,” he said.
“There’s no guarantee of the right to exist. You have to fight for it and I think that’s what we’re doing,” he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
He has been rounded on by politicians and the public alike, with the media dubbing him the nation’s most loathed man, but Joyce said he was sick of what he described as “racist” slurs about his accent and heritage.
“I don’t think there’s any difference between attacking somebody because of their Irish accent and attacking someone because of their color — they’re all forms of racism,” he said.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from