Qantas Airways Ltd chief executive Geoff Dixon said Australia's largest carrier will offer its workers a 3 percent pay rise as the airline improves labor productivity, simplifies its fleet and cuts overheads.
Dixon said he met 50 union officials in recent days to discuss the wage increase.
"We made it very plain that we appreciated their support and we obviously appreciate the support of all our people," Dixon told Channel Nine's Business Sunday program. "What we're doing is investing hugely in the company and they understand that."
Last week, the Sydney-based carrier said net income rose 1.5 percent in the six months ended Dec. 31 to a record A$357.8 million (US$276 million) as a surging Australian dollar reduced fuel and equipment costs. The airline saved A$73 million in labor productivity and A$113 million in fleet simplification.
This week Qantas will release details about its Jetstar discount airline, which is schedule to start in May, Dixon told Nine. The company started Jetstar in an effort to win back sales from Brisbane-based Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd, which has grabbed about a third of the domestic market since it started offering a discount service in August 2000.
Jetstar, which will be based in Melbourne, will start with 14 Boeing Co. 717-model planes. The service will expand with 23 single-aisle Airbus SAS A320 planes, which can carry 150 passengers each.
The airline's routes will be "quite extensive" on Australia's east coast traveling as far north as Cairns, Dixon told Nine. Qantas plans to extend the business to the western seaboard later, he said. Dixon wasn't specific.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
PLANE HIT: The Israeli military said it shot down an Iranian Air Force fighter over Tehran, while an Iranian warship sank off Sri Lanka, with no cause known The US and Israel yesterday hit Iran’s capital and other cities in multiple airstrikes on the fifth day of the war with Iran. Israel targeted the Iranian leadership and security forces, while the Islamic Republic responded with missile barrages and drone attacks on Israel, and across the region. Tehran residents woke to dawn blasts and Iranian state television showed the ruins of building in the center of the capital. The Shiite seminary city of Qom and multiple other cities were also targeted. With fighter jets roaring overhead, those still in Tehran looked anxiously to the skies. One man, who ran a clothing shop,
RSS