Qantas’ High Court appeal over the outsourcing of around 1,700 ground workers kicks off today, with the airline set to argue that the employees did not have the right to take protected industrial action (PIA) at the time the decision was made. The Federal Court previously ruled that Qantas had sacked the 1,683 workers in 2020-21 to head off industrial action, which is illegal under the Fair Work Act. This decision was upheld last year by the Full Federal Court, though the courts did not force Qantas to reinstate the workers. In a statement, a spokesperson for Qantas said that the airline’s survival was “not assured” when it outsourced the workers in a bid to save A$100m per year, and that the workers were not legally permitted to take PIA as their agreement had not expired and the process for a protected action ballot had not yet commenced. “When we made this decision, we were still in the depth of the pandemic and there was very little certainty about when our recovery would begin. Ultimately, we lost $25b in revenue so there was no way to avoid having to make significant changes,” the spokesperson said. “While the Federal Court accepted that we had lawful and compelling commercial reasons for making the outsourcing decision, it was not convinced that preventing protected industrial action in 2021 was not relevant in the decision to outsource. We have always rejected this, which is why are taking our appeal to the High Court. We’ve always acknowledged that it would have been very tough on our ground handlers and the thousands of other employees who lost jobs because of the pandemic.”<br/>
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Fiji Airways Executive Manager of Global Sales, Marketing and Digital, Akuila Batiweti, said the carrier hopes to unveil the new destinations in June or July, which would bring the total number of its Australian ports to six or seven. This would make Fiji Airways the third largest international airline operating in Australia, by number of destinations. Given the airline is already flying to five destinations down under (including the future Canberra-Nadi route), it’s difficult to predict where FJ would fly to next. Batiweti said Fiji Airways was also already considering adding a third weekly service “at least” to its Canberra-Nadi route months before it launches in late July. With demand for the upcoming service already surging, he said Canberra would be a great destination for the carrier given Territorians’ high average disposable income, that there are no beaches in the capital (and that it can get bitterly cold), and the fact that through Nadi, Fiji Airways will be able to connect residents of the ACT (and beyond) to other parts of the world. <br/>