Businessman angry at Qantas claim re delays
Daniel Emerson
June 23, 2008 - 4:13PM
SMH
A Melbourne businessman has disputed Qantas's claim that passengers on flights cancelled by strike action today were put on replacement planes within an hour, and with good reason - if that were true he'd be on his way to Auckland by now.
The businessman, who did not wish to be named, said he was due to leave Melbourne at 10.45am on flight QF25 but the flight has been rescheduled to leave for New Zealand at 5pm today.
Six Qantas flights from Melbourne and Sydney were cancelled this morning after engineers walked off the job for four hours from 2am because of a pay dispute.
Qantas executive general manager for people, Kevin Brown, told morning radio that all affected passengers had been put "on other flights and all of them within 60 minutes of their planned travel".
But the businessman, who missed an important meeting, said the claim was "simply not true".
"I was literally going out the door when I got a call from Webjet, who I booked the flight through, and then 20 minutes later Qantas called," he said.
"I asked was [the cancellation] due to the industrial action and they said yes.
"I've got a new business and this was a potential client meeting, it was a pretty good opportunity so this is not good.
"It just doesn't look good from my end. Thankfully I can blame Qantas, but I pay for my flights to be on time."
He said when he arrived at the airport this afternoon for his rescheduled 5pm flight, he was told it was cancelled.
He said he was told the plane was due to arrive from Perth, but had been stalled there due to the strike action.
Qantas have now booked him onto a midnight Air New Zealand flight, he said.
"It's been a real drama today. Had they spoken to me to tell me it was canceled [before I got to the airport] it would have been OK. It's really frustrating.''
He said he didn't like Qantas claiming that no passengers were badly affected.
"I think they need their media division to get it right," he said.
The engineers engaged in strikes in three states overnight and will strike again in Sydney at the same time tomorrow morning.
Qantas will cancel another 18 flights tomorrow but have so far refused to budge from their offer of a three per cent pay rise.
The engineers are campaigning for five per cent.
Qantas has been contacted for comment.