Australian travellers to face flight disruptions next week during industrial action by airport firefighters

Passengers across Australia may face major flight disruptions nextweek when firefighters at 27 airports walk off the job. The United Firefighters Union aviation branch announced on Tuesday members will stop work on Friday week in protest over staffing levels and safety concerns amid months of negotiation with Airservices Australia over a new enterprise agreement. The strike, planned to go ahead between 6am-10am AEDT on Friday 9 December, could result in grounded international and domestic flights, according to the union, as some aircraft are not permitted to land at an airport without firefighters on duty, while other airlines choose not to. Wesley Garrett, aviation branch secretary of the United Firefighters union, said aviation firefighters had been left with no choice but to take stop-work action. “Every day the lives of 2,500 air travellers across Australia are being put at risk because they don’t have the protection they need from understaffed aviation firefighters,” he said. “Air travellers don’t have the protection they need because Airservices cut 100 aviation firefighters from Australia’s airports to cut costs in October 2021,” Garrett said, referencing a voluntary retirement scheme. Garrett said that since October 2021, every month more than 600 flights are “operating from Australia’s airports without the aviation firefighting protection they require under international aviation safety regulation”. Story has more.<br/>