Australian airlines are set to resume Vanuatu flights nearly a week after a powerful 7.3 Mag earthquake. The quake hit last week killing 14 people dead and left hundreds of holidaymakers stranded. The earthquake brought down buildings in capital Port Vila and sparked landslides. Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia are expected to restart flights this week. It also damaged a section of the main airport although the Bauerfield International Airport has been cleared as safe for flights The Royal Australian Air Force flights has been flying evacuation flights to bring Australians home. More than 400 people were left stranded by the earthquake. "Following close consultations with all our airport agencies, we are pleased to announce that we will be reopening Port Vila International Airport to commercial airline operations," operator Airports Vanuatu said. "We encourage stranded passengers both within Vanuatu and abroad to contact your relevant airlines to confirm details." Two final RAAF flights are also scheduled for Sunday. Qantas and Virgin are offering flights from Sunday. Jetstar will fly to Brisbane from Port Vila on Monday, it said.  

UK union Unite has secured a major double digit pay increase for workers employed as cabin crew by Aussie flag carrier Qantas in the UK. The 550 workers who fly out of Heathrow Terminal 3 will receive pay increases of between 11 and 18%. This will be backdated to July. The dispute arose in April when members were unable to keep step with the cost-of-living crisis due to being tied to a four year pay deal. This was worth an annual 3% increase, signed in 2022 following the pandemic. Qantas were forced to bring forward this year’s pay increase to April on basic pay for certain grades of cabin crew with 1-2 years’ service to respond to an increase of the national living wage. The union says it used that opportunity to reopen pay negotiations halfway through a pay deal. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is further evidence how Unite’s focus on jobs, pay and conditions is delivering clear dividends.” Following nine months of negotiations the resulting increase were agreed: Flight attendants/Business Flight Attendants base pay 15% Customer service supervisors base pay 12% Customer service managers 8%. On top of this all groups received a three per cent increase on base pay and variable pay as previously agreed. Unite has also secured the agreement that an increase in pension pay due to be implemented in 2025 has been brought forward. Employer’s pension contributions will increase from 5 to 9% and the introduction of a salary sacrifice scheme will effectively mean workers receive 10% with no additional contributions from themselves.

Sabre Corporation  has extended its long-term distribution agreement with flag carrier Qantas. The multi-year agreement includes comprehensive access to Qantas’ New Distribution Capability (NDC) content. Sabre was among the first global distribution systems to distribute the airline’s NDC offers in 2021. Under the renewed agreement, Sabre-connected agents will continue to be able to access the full range of traditional EDIFACT and NDC offers by Qantas. “Our continuing collaboration is central to our distribution strategy, helping ensure our customers can seamlessly shop, book, and service a comprehensive range of Qantas content via NDC,” said Kathryn Robertson, Qantas Executive Manager, Global Sales & Distribution.

A mid-air collision between two small aircraft near Sydney has claimed the life of a veteran Qantas pilot. Qantas pilot Gary Criddle, 72, was confirmed as one of three people dead. The weekend mid-air accident involved a Jabiru light aircraft and a Cessna 182, which was carrying two people. All three people died. The two planes went down in bushland southwest of Sydney close to Belimbla Park. One burst into flames on impact with the ground, while witnesses say they saw debris falling. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating what caused the collision. “Over coming days, investigators will undertake site mapping, examine the wreckage of both aircraft, and recover any relevant components for further examination,” the ATSB said. Australian media said off-duty pilot Criddle was instructing another person in the Cessna when the collision happened. Khadervali Gagguturu, 60, was named as the pilot of the Jabiru plane. “Captain Gary Criddle was a highly respected and loved member of the Qantas flying community,” said Qantas Chief Pilot Richard Tobiano. Criddle had been flying for Qantas for nearly four decades. 

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Hundreds of Qantas engineers have walked out at Melbourne Airport amid a long running wage dispute. The maintenance workers are on a 24-hour strike that could lead to flight delays or cancellations. Engineers at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport staged the walkout from 9am, while more engineers are striking at Brisbane. The snap strike comes after weeks of fruitless talks between the airline and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Electrical Trades Union and Australian Workers Union. The unions are seeking an initial 15% pay rise and 5% per year thereafter. They say they have had no increase for nearly four years. "When times were tough, our members accepted years of wage freezes," AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow said. "Now that the profits are flowing, it's time for Qantas to come to the table with a decent offer." Stoppages began in late September when more than 1,000 engineers began strike action at multiple airports. Pay talks have been going on for nearly six months. "Every time there is a problem at Qantas, the executives ignore it and just hope that it will go away," AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy added.   

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Qantas has been accused of misleading its customers over its carbon-neutral claims. Director of Climate Integrity Claire Snyder said the airline is greenwashing and has called on regulator ACCC to investigate. "The first representation is, are Qantas presenting flying as more sustainable than it is, and creating a perception of flying as increasingly sustainable," she said. "The second representation that we've asked the ACCC to look into and investigate is the Qantas claim that they're on a path to net zero in line with the goals of the Paris agreement.” Qantas offers customers the 'Fly Carbon Neutral program' This allows customers to pay extra to ‘offset emissions’ from the flight "Carbon offsetting allows us to help compensate for these emissions by purchasing offsets that remove, reduce or avoid emissions in the atmosphere from projects outside the aviation sector," it says on the website. “Qantas' representation of offsets in this way has the potential to mislead consumers by creating a false equivalency between carbon emissions and carbon sequestration through offsets," Climate Integrity said. Snyder says there is clear evidence one tonne of carbon emitted cannot be considered the same as one tonne of carbon sequestered through an offset program. "While contributing to conservation is a great thing, it cannot compensate or neutralise for, the emissions from flying." 

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Up to 1,000 Qantas loyalty members may have had their accounts compromised in a cyber theft attempt. According to a Sky News Australia report, it implicates two Air India contractors. The two contractors have been suspended and accused of accessing and making unauthorised changes to the Qantas loyalty accounts. They are accused of trying to transfer points from the customer accounts to another account they had control of. A criminal investigation has been opened by police in India. The changes were allegedly made via external airline booking systems, the Guardian reports. Qantas issued an apology for the ‘fraudulent activity’ and claimed it affected a number of airlines. “As soon as we became aware of this, we worked closely with our airline partners to secure their systems to prevent this issue from happening again.” “Customers have received the full amount of points and status credits they were entitled to.” 

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Qantas has touched down its first ever A380 flights to Africa. Sydney-Johannesburg flights are now served by the superjumbo, upgrading service with an extra 130,000 seats annually between Australia and Africa. This nearly doubles overall capacity. This is also thanks to the relaunch of Perth- Johannesburg flights in mid-2025. Johannesburg flights will operate up to six times per week. “We are seeing strong demand for our Johannesburg services and, by upgrading to the Superjumbo, we will nearly double capacity during peak periods,” Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said. In addition, Qantas inked an airline codeshare agreement offering expanded connectivity within South Africa. It gives access to onward flights to nine cities. “This extra capacity, combined with our new codeshare with Airlink, will significantly expand the options for Qantas customers heading to Africa.” 

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Qantas passengers have been warned of potential travel disruption as the airline’s engineers go on strike. The industrial action kicks off at Melbourne today and then on Monday. Other airport strikes are planned around the country on 2 October and 4 October. Engineers are seeking an initial 15% pay rise this year and the 5% annually. The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance said the strike is ‘highly likely’ to impact flights. Qantas says it has made contingency plans and doesn’t believe there will be widespread disruption. However, the airline has offered passengers the option to change to earlier flights before the strike action begins. The union says its members have gone without pay increases for nearly four years. Steve Murphy, AMWU National Secretary, said: “Nothing has changed at Qantas —workers feel undervalued, underpaid and under-appreciated. If you’ve had a bad Qantas experience, well that’s nothing compared to how Qantas makes their workers feel every day.” 

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An Australian politician has called for the breaking up of Qantas Group to ‘deal with the airline duopoly.’ Shadow Transport Minister Bridget McKenzie said the government should introduce powers to spin off low cost Jetstar from Qantas control. It came in an op-ed published by the Australian Financial Review. McKenzie wrote it should be a ‘divestiture as a measure to ensure consumers’ interests.’ McKenzie said the Australian competition regulator should explore ‘the role of divestiture.’ However, party leader David Littleproud said this isn’t policy yet. Littleproud did say it was a ‘sensible look at competition to ensure we have cheaper airfares.’ McKenzie later clarified that ‘divestiture powers is a tool that the treasurer needs to look at.’ 

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Australia flag carrier Qantas has suffered an expensive ‘mistake fare’ glitch. However, the airline has vowed to honour the bookings – sort of. Last week, a coding error had return first class flights – normally priced at $20,000 – on ‘sale’ for less than $5,000. The error went unnoticed for about eight hours. By the about 300 customers had made bookings. It represented a discount of about 85%. The airline said it will honour the bookings, but for business class, or customers can opt for a full refund. They were mostly for long haul flights to the US between September 2024 and June 2025. “Unfortunately, this is a case where the fare was actually too good to be true,” the airline said. Even though it is no longer for first class, the price paid is still a bargain for business class service. "As a gesture of goodwill, we’re rebooking customers in business-class at no additional cost.”

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Passenger on New Zealand – Australia trans-Tasman flights will be the first to test a new digital version of the Australia Travel Declaration passenger card. It will be piloted later this year for Qantas passengers on select flights inbound from New Zealand. Available through the Qantas app, passenger fill in the card and will receive a digital pass with a QR code on confirmation. The QR code will also be sent to their registered email address. Passengers can complete the form up to 72 hours in advance of their Australia bound flight. “This will allow us to gain valuable feedback from passengers that will help refine the product and inform future expansion,” an Australian Border Force spokesperson said. Travel and business groups and government officials from both countries have been pushing for more seamless trans-Tasman travel. The Trans-Tasman Seamless Travel Group was set up last year and includes senior officials of the ABF and the New Zealand Customs Service. "The Australia Travel Declaration is the first initiative from the group and shows the power of a joint approach and leveraging expertise,” said ABF Commissioner Michael Outram. 

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