QPC Briefing No 19 2025
LH EA Update
On Tuesday your AFAP LH EA team presented Qantas with a fair and reasonable package, carefully structured around the Company’s own model. Our package appropriately values the significant concessions Qantas are demanding.
It is important to remember that Qantas are pursuing well over 50 concessions and reforms, far more than the AFAP has ever sought. In genuine negotiations, few items should be treated as immovable “threshold” claims. Yet Qantas continues to designate multiple claims of theirs in this way, while offering little in return. This is not a balanced approach.
We are also aware of a narrative being circulated by some managers: that pilot reforms are instrumental to securing the $2 billion profit the Company claims it needs in order to keep fleet orders on track. This framing is misleading and designed to create fear. Pilots have seen these tactics before, threats about outsourcing, growth and investment used to pressure concessions.
Pilots have already sacrificed significantly. The last two LH EAs represented the worst backwards movement for Pilot conditions in recent Qantas history. Since then, purchasing power has dropped further, while Qantas has posted a combined $6.94 billion in profit over the past three years. Any suggestion that pilots must now concede again to guarantee aircraft orders is propaganda and would mark a disappointing return to the industrial tactics of the Joyce era.
Your AFAP team will continue to advocate strongly for a fair outcome, with a clear escalation path ready should the Company persist with unreasonable positions.
Questions and Feedback
If you have any questions or feedback please contact your AFAP Qantas Pilot Council representatives at
qpc@afap.org.au, or the AFAP legal and industrial team of Senior Legal/ Industrial Officer Pat Larkins (
patrick@afap.org.au), Senior Industrial Officer Deanna Cain (
deanna@afap.org.au) or Executive Director Simon Lutton (
simon@afap.org.au).
Regards,
AFAP Qantas Pilot Council
Michael Egan – Chair
Mark Gilmour – Vice-Chair
Rob Close – Secretary
Michael Armessen – Committee Member
David LaPorte – Committee Member
Josh Chalmers – Committee Member