AFAP SH EA implementation Meeting
Last week, your QPC Short Haul representatives, Josh Chalmers and Rob Close, along with AFAP Senior Legal/ Industrial Officer Pat Larkins, met with Qantas Flight Ops and IR management to discuss the rollout of the new SHEA9 and address ongoing disputes.
Attending from the Company were Doug Alley (Head of Base Operations), Eszter Jonathan (Manager, National Base Operations), Jim Morton (Head of Industrial Relations), Karl Romberg-Yee (Industrial Relations Senior Manager) and Tom O’Donnell (Industrial Relations Manager).
Implementation of Reserve/ AV Payment and Long Slip Credit
Since 8 September, Pilots should be seeing:
- Min 5 hours (4 hours on subsequent days) when called from Reserve to same-day duty – cl 28.1.7(a)
- Min 4 hours for duties allocated over a Reserve period – cl 28.1.7(b)
- Min 4 hours for duties on AV or BL days – cl 28.1.6
- Disrupted slips over 30 hours that trigger a Long slip credits (cl 28.1.4) are being applied manually until the system is updated in Feb 2026.
Qantas has tested these payments. If you think your pattern hasn’t been credited correctly, contact your base manager for correction and advise the AFAP at qpc@afap.org.au.
Pattern Credit Guarantee (PCG)
Recognising the importance of the PCG benefit, Qantas is working to implement PCG ahead of the scheduled date of 16 February 2026.
The AFAP raised that several AFAP members lost duties or were disrupted by the mid roster aircraft swaps, bringing into service the A321. Qantas advised it will ensure that crew are not disadvantaged, and where credits were lost, they will be honoured. This should have been communicated to all affected pilots. Re-crediting these hours will be a manual process, and pilots should confirm this has been done correctly.
From next roster build, there will be dedicated lines of flying for the A321 to avoid disruption of other duties.
Reserve Duties
A number of associated issues with reserve were discussed as follows:
Assignment of duties outside reserve span
The AFAP have provided advice to a number of members called out to perform flying with:
- a sign-on outside of the reserve span of hours; and
- to then perform fatiguing duties, such as late night operations, which sign off up to 24 hours from the commencement of the reserve period.
We continue to be advised by members of this occurring, particularly associated with covering late night operations (LNO) to Darwin and Perth.
Stand Down from Reserve to Rest
There has been a growing practice of pilots being notified early in a reserve period of a sign-on in the afternoon/ evening to perform a LNO, and stood down from reserve onto a purported rest period during the day.
The AFAP Safety and Technical team have raised our fatigue concerns where pilots are being required to be adequately rested to potentially be called to operate at the start of their reserve duty, to then immediately commence another day rest period to operate a LNO. The pilot’s circadian rhythms would make utilising this subsequent period to adequately rest for the late night duty difficult.
Following AFAP advocacy, Qantas advised it will cease this practice.
Sign-On Times
The Company has also been calling people off reserve to sign on well after the conclusion of their reserve period.
We advised Qantas, under a formal dispute notification before this meeting, that our position is that by assigning a duty outside of the reserve span of hours, Qantas is not complying with SHEA9. A pilot should only be available for operational duty within the reserve period.
Qantas has since responded with a revised position as follows:
The Company’s position is that a pilot rostered on a reserve can be called out for a duty at any time during the reserve period. When called out for a duty, the pilot must then sign- on within 120 minutes. The practical effect is that a pilot on reserve can be required to perform a duty with a sign on time after the completion of the reserve period. For example, a pilot rostered on a 0400hrs to 1600hrs reserve could be notified of a duty at 1530hrs with a sign-on at 1730hrs.
The above effectively allows Qantas to assign a duty to sign-on up to 2 hours after the end of the reserve period to then work their maximum FDP.
At this stage the AFAP has reserved our position as to whether we agree with the above.
Allowable FDP from Reserve
Unlike at Jetstar or Virgin, Qantas’ FRMS does not have a limit on allowable FDP which accounts for time on reserve. This means that at the end of a 12 hour reserve period a pilot may be asked to sign on up to two hours later to then operate to their maximum FDP.
For a pilot on a R4 they could be called at 1559 to sign on at 1759 to operate an 11 hour duty, signing off over 24 hours after their reserve period commenced.
If assigned, a pilot then has to decide if they feel unable to complete this duty and then remove themselves due to fatigue. Being assigned a late night duty from reserve can also disrupt other rostered duties, placing a financial penalty on pilots in these circumstances.
Following consultation with the AFAP Safety and Technical team, Qantas advises that it has proposed to CASA to update the FRMS to adopt, among other changes, the same rule as Jetstar:
5.6.7.2 FDP Limit Following Call-Out
Subject to Section 5.6.7.3:
(a) the FDP limit after a call-out from standby must be decreased by the number of hours by which the standby exceeds:
(i) 6 hours; or
(ii) For an augmented crew operation – 8 hours; and
(b) the maximum combined duration of standby and FDP is 16 hours, unless the FDP is augmented.
These limits do not apply if an FCM is informed of a call-out from standby at least 12 hours prior to sign-on time.
5.6.7.3 Standby Sleep Opportunity
If a standby period for an acclimatised FCM commences between the hours of 2300 and 0559 acclimatised time, the period of standby prior to the earlier of:
(a) 0559 acclimatised time; and
(b) The FCM being informed of a call-out;
is not considered to be standby for the purposes of Section 5.6.7.2 – FDP Limit Following Call-Out
The effect of this change will be to limit the available FDP for a pilot. For example, a pilot on a 0600-1800 reserve who is called at 1800 to sign-on at 2000 could only perform a 2 hour FDP. This will mean pilots became essentially unusable later in the reserve period, protecting against these fatiguing duties.
While we welcome this change, we are concerned by how Qantas plans to mitigate the acknowledged fatigue risk prior to full implementation.
Reserve Changes
From the next bid period, single day blocks of reserve in the afternoon/evening will be used to cover Darwin LNO duties.
The AFAP asked if a single day of reserve to cover duties will potentially require disruption of the following day due to the Darwin duties being (at least) a two-day pattern. Qantas advised that it would observe how the roster build process unfolds and seek to have AV days after the majority of the single blocks of late reserve.
The AFAP will continue to monitor the use of reserve and we encourage members to contact the AFAP with their concerns. The Safety and Technical team (technical@afap.org.au) is able to assist pilots with navigating their FRMS obligations.
As always, we remind members that ensuring you are fit for duty is a shared responsibility between yourself and the Company. At present, the responsibility is largely falling to the pilot and we urge members to act with caution.
Jury Leave Credits
The AFAP continues to dispute the application of jury leave credits (clause 28.7) during a period of summons for jury duty. Different states have different requirements, including to contact the court each evening to confirm whether attendance is required the following morning in court.
Qantas has not confirmed how the calculation of credits is applied for days a pilot is on jury duty or service for part of the bid period and how it meets the requirement to provide the average of the actual divisors for the pilot’s category across all bases for the six (6) preceding bid periods.
Ad-hoc Leave
The AFAP raised the issue of pilots' access to ad-hoc leave and whether Qantas was making sufficient slots available, particularly in categories with lower divisors.
Qantas advised that it has a review process each bid period, as they say they aim to assign as much ad-hoc leave as possible.
Qantas disagreed that divisors have been low in certain categories, and that actual divisors at the end of bid periods are in the 76-78 range.
We questioned whether Qantas was under resourced and the Company advised it is resourced to offer 6 weeks per year of bulk leave. The Company advised with some B737 flying moving to A321 this will create some more slots. Further as B737 FO vacancies are filled this might also create more opportunities.
The AFAP will continue to monitor pilots access to this important entitlement.
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