Virgin should get rights to extra Bali flights over Jetstar, Transport Workers Union says

A key union in aviation has backed Virgin Australia over Qantas’s budget carrier Jetstar as the two airlines battle for the rights to run extra flights on coveted routes to Bali. Australia’s International Air Services Commission (IASC) is considering applications from Virgin and Qantas for the rights to almost 2,500 extra weekly seats between Australia and Indonesia available under the countries’ bilateral air services agreement. Qantas has proposed offering an additional 2,320 weekly seats with the extra Jetstar flights, carried on a daily Cairns-Melbourne-Denpasar route from May and a thrice-weekly Adelaide-Perth-Denpasar route from August. Virgin Australia wants to fly 2,464 seats a week, on Gold Coast-Perth-Denpasar and Adelaide-Perth-Denpasar routes. In a submission to the IASC made on Monday, the Transport Workers Union argued Virgin should be chosen for the extra flight capacity because it would employ local aviation workers. The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said in a letter to the IASC’s director, Jasmina Ackar, that Qantas would not do so with the Jetstar flights.<br/>