Following months of flight delays and operational blunders, Australia’s flag carrier Qantas issues a formal apology along with refunds to millions of flyers as it seeks to regain public confidence.
"On
behalf of the national carrier, I want to apologize and assure you that we’re working hard to get back to our best,"
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement. Joyce has been under intense
scrutiny as the airline has suffered severe worker shortages, mass
cancellations and delays of flights, and misdirected luggage, reports Xinhua
news agency.
Alongside
the statement, the CEO sent a video message to frequent flyers saying despite
"good reasons" for the operational problems, including staff
shortages due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a tight labour market, and extreme
weather in eastern Australia, it was still not good enough.
The
airline would be rolling out a series of initiatives to overcome the
operational hurdles, which have included the hiring of 1,500 new workers since
April, and A$15 million of investment to help smooth customers' travel
experience. In 2020, the airline outsourced its baggage handling workforce
which resulted in 1,700 redundancies.
The
move was deemed a breach of Australia`s work regulation by the Federal Court
and has been seen by many as a reason behind its struggle to meet the return of
aviation demand. The Transport Workers Union (TWU), representing workers in the
industry, made a call for Joyce to resign and criticized the move as the CEO
trying to "buy off forgiveness."
TWU
national assistant secretary Nick McIntosh told the local media that the once
great airline which was known for providing secure, quality jobs had trashed its
reputation during the pandemic. "Qantas needs a reset and that's got to
start at the top ... we need to put an independent body in place that's got the
capacity to look at all the underlying issues in this industry."
Source: Dailyhunt