British Airways has announced a major shake-up to its Executive Club loyalty scheme by switching all customers over to a fixed membership year from 2025. It removes one of the major complexities of the programme by aligning the collection year for tier points – which determine status such as gold, silver or bronze – into a common calendar year, to run from April 1 to March 31. At the moment, tier point collection years vary according to the date of first joining the scheme and run for 12 months from that date e.g. February-February or October-October. It means couples and households often have different collection years, making it difficult to keep track of how many flights are needed to maintain the status needed for access to benefits such as lounges, priority check-in and free seat selection.<br/>
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Cathay Pacific has resumed daily services to Perth Airport for the first time since the pandemic. The Hong Kong-based carrier is now flying 294-seat Boeing 777-300ER aircraft into Perth. This is an upgrade from its five-days-weekly A350-900 service, which offered 280 seats each way as of 6 December, up from the previous three flights per week. The daily Cathay Pacific flights arrive in Perth as CX171 at 10:50pm and depart as CX140 at 12:10am. Perth Airport’s chief commercial & aviation officer, Kate Holsgrove, said the return to a daily service is an important step in Perth’s recovery from COVID-19. “Business travellers, students, tourists and those visiting family and friends are key focus sectors between Perth and Hong Kong,” Holsgrove said, adding that the carrier had been an “important airline partner” to Perth for more than 50 years. “Cathay Pacific now provides more than 214,000 seats to the Perth market and also provides local exporters with crucial cargo capacity between Perth and Hong Kong and North Asia. “Cathay Pacific has excellent connections to 200 destinations worldwide including Asia, Europe and North America, offering Western Australians access to a range of travel destinations.”<br/>
Australian carrier Qantas will head to the country's Fair Work Commission on Monday to seek arbitration in a pay-related dispute with its pilots at a subsidiary in Western Australia who have voted down a new enterprise deal three times. Network Aviation, which conducts charter operations for the resources sector, will make an "intractable bargaining application" to the Commission after 18 months of failed negotiations. Network Aviation pilots are represented by three major workers unions, which include the Australian Federation of Airline Pilots (AFAP), the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU). The pilots will strike for 24 hours later this week, and the airline's move to seek arbitration comes after they voted down the two most recent proposed agreements despite backing from the unions. "It is disappointing that as we've advised the AFAP of our intention to apply for the Fair Work Commission to assist with arbitration, the union has notified us it plans to take industrial action," a Network Aviation spokesperson told Reuters in an email statement. About 57% voted down the third proposed agreement, which offered pay increases of more than 25% coupled with new allowances for pilots, Network Aviation said.<br/>