Union warns of long Qantas queues

A report in the ABC says that with Qantas having 25% fewer staff in Brisbane compared to the same time last year, the Australian Services Union (ASU) is predicting long queues at Qantas check-in desks at Brisbane’s domestic and international airport terminals this festive season.

Despite the staff shortfall, a newspaper report says Qantas is sending Brisbane employees to Sydney to cover shortages there.

The ASU state secretary Julie Bignall says Qantas is unfairly prioritising Sydney over Brisbane.

At the same time an article by Hannah Davies in The Sunday Mail also says that check-in workers are being flown from Queensland to work in Sydney – leaving passengers to wait hours in queues at Brisbane Airport.

Despite a shortfall of 90 staff in Brisbane, Qantas assigns up to four people each week to be flown to work at Sydney Airport, which is short-staffed by about 100, The Sunday Mail has learned.

A Qantas spokesman yesterday defended flying ground employees 1000km to work, and said losing four staff each week does “not have an impact on Brisbane operations”, with the Qantas terminal at Brisbane’s domestic airport descending into chaos, with queues snaking for more than 400m and waits of up to an hour.

Regular visitors to the airport and workers there say the long lines are common, and also occur at the international airport departures terminal, where some travellers have queued for more than two hours.

“They make announcements pleading with people not to join the lines, but they don’t seem to have a solution to shorten them. I think they just don’t care,” one frustrated traveller said.

Julie Bignell, secretary of the Australian Services Union, said passengers would be outraged to hear what was going on behind the scenes.

She said Qantas ground staff had been flown to work in Sydney every week since early last month.

“Qantas is prioritising Sydney over Brisbane and that is going to upset a lot of people,” she said.

“Transferring people from Brisbane Airport to Sydney is not the answer to these under-staffing problems.”

Two weeks ago, Qantas bosses said they would recruit 35 extra customer service staff after an elderly woman suffered a heart attack and died while waiting in a long check-in queue.

Ms Bignell said Qantas had 25 per cent fewer staff in Brisbane compared with the same time last year, and doubted the company would be able to recruit enough new staff in the lead-up to the Christmas rush.

“It takes six weeks to train people and between six and 12 weeks to run security checks, so I can’t see how Qantas can get that done in time,” she said.

In August, Qantas announced a record net profit of $720 million – up 50 per cent on last year.

The company boasts it has “a reputation for excellence in customer service”.

In stark contrast, there were plenty of disgruntled passengers queuing at check-in desks last week and yesterday morning.

“This (line) beats anything at the London airports,” said Clive Ellery, 72, from England, as he joined the end of the queue.

Like many travellers, Kay Malpress-Salmond, 46, was frustrated by the slow pace of the long lines.

“The annoying thing about it is there seem to be quite a few empty check-in desks,” she said. Lindsay McPhillips, 23, from Morayfield, feared he would miss his flight. “They really need some more people at the desks because this queue is just ridiculous,” he said.

Tania Cater, 22, said, “Qantas needs to give its passengers better customer service.”

Previously, Qantas claimed to be “constantly monitoring staff levels to ensure we are operating as effectively and efficiently as possible”.

A spokesman for Qantas said staff were being transferred to Sydney to “help oversee a systems change”.

A Report by The Mole