Qantas draws backlash for hiring Kiwi staff on SYD-NY route

By James Harrison

Qantas is looking to use Kiwi cabin crew on its newly launched Sydney to New York flight, which stops via Auckland, spurring criticism from Australian flight attendants.

The 16-hour flight replaces Qantas’ pre-pandemic route which stopped at Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and will use New Zealand-based cabin crew, which some claim is because NZ flight attendants have fewer rest entitlements.

Among those is the head of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA) Teri O’Toole, who described the move to opt for New Zealand flight attendants over Qantas’ Australian employees as a “slap in the face.”

“After Australian taxpayers gave Qantas more than $2 billion in support to retain their staff during COVID-19, it seems like a slap in the face that Australian workers have been denied this work,” O’Toole told the Sydney Morning Herald.

FAAA secretary, Teri O’Toole (LinkedIn/Teri O’Toole)

Kiwi flights in Qantas’ subsidiary Jet Connect recently voted to change the minimum hours of required rest following an 18 hour flight. This dropped from 50 hours to 40 hours and is what the association believes is the reason Kiwi staff were chosen for this route.

“It is a slippery slope to chase destinations by reducing your conditions. Of course our members would like to go to New York and carry Australians, but at what cost. The community should be outraged that after making $2.5 billon in profit, Qantas would choose and encourage work groups to reduce agreed conditions,” O’Toole said.

In response to O’Toole’s criticisms, Qantas rejected that the reason for the crewing decision was the difference in risk entitlements and said the carrier had increased Kiwi crew’s rest entitlements from 24 to 40 hours.

A spokesperson said that Qantas has employed New Zealand flight attendants for than two decades and “given the longest leg of the flight to New York departs from Auckland, it makes sense for them to operate this service”.

“We’re hiring more than 1400 Australian-based cabin crew this year alone and promoting hundreds more as additional wide-body aircraft enter service, and we continue to ramp up international flying.”

The route will initially commence with three services a week and soon after increase to four. The crew on this service will have over two full days of rest before heading back to Auckland.

Find more details on the flight below:

SYD-AKL Flight Time: 3 hours 5 mins
AKL-JFK Flight Time: 16 hours 15 mins
SYD-AKL-JFK Travel distance: 16,371 kilometres

Qantas’ Dreamliner carries 236 passengers across Business, Premium Economy and Economy cabins in a layout that has been designed to maximise comfort for longer distances.

42 Business suites in a 1-2-1 configuration with a fully-flat bed and direct aisle access
28 Premium Economy seats in a 2-3-2 configuration
166 Economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration

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FAAA Flight Attendants Association of Australia qantas SYD-NY Teri O’Toole