Qantas pilots stood down over fraud claim
FOUR senior Qantas pilots, including a captain, have been suspended from flying duties and removed from an ongoing training course after the discovery of an alleged expenses rort involving tens of thousands of dollars at the airline.
The pilots are under internal investigation for claiming almost $20,000 each from cash-strapped Qantas as an allowance for living away from their homes for the duration of the Sydney-based course, which is mandatory to upgrade their skills.
Senior sources told
The Australian yesterday that the pilots had falsely purported that their NSW homes were more than 200km from Sydney. This meant they would have been entitled to about $18,000 each in allowances over the 12 weeks of the course.
The payment of the allowance is meant to compensate for the costs of accommodation, food and other miscellaneous expenses in Sydney when pilots are on a training course and living away from home for an extended period. The policy and its guidelines were designed to be strictly observed to ensure that only pilots who lived too far to commute would benefit from generous allowances.
The four pilots, all of whom are experienced on the Qantas 737 passenger jets, were immediately stood down after management discovered in recent days that they lived in Sydney and had no entitlement to the expenses.
It is understood that each of the pilots earns more than $200,000 a year in gross salary while the captain commands significantly more in salary and allowances.
An internal investigation is at an early stage and could lead to more serious ramifications. A fraud or attempted fraud on the airline, which has been reporting record losses and seen a collapse in its share price, may be referred to police.
A Qantas spokeswoman who was asked about the suspensions and the investigation replied with a written statement: “The overwhelming majority of Qantas staff do the right thing when it comes to allowances, but if we reasonably believe anyone is not sticking to the rules we’ll investigate and act accordingly.’’
The spokeswoman, who refused to confirm or deny the details that were provided to
The Australian, added: “Qantas doesn’t comment on any individual staff issues.’’
Senior staff who want the investigation to determine if others have been rorting the system.
Flight attendants and their industrial representatives are watching management’s responses to the case because of perceptions that the pilots receive preferential treatment, an airline source said yesterday.
Flight attendants have complained internally that their colleagues have been fired over relatively minor amounts but pilots have been let off over more serious alleged misconduct.
“If you’re a flight attendant helping yourself to relatively small amounts of alcohol from the flight deck or taxi dockets for unauthorised travel, you will probably lose your job,’’ said an airline insider.