Fair Work Australia has today dismissed the application by the Australian and International Pilots' Association (AIPA) to have pilots employed by Jetconnect subject to Australian industrial laws and agreements.

The Qantas Group's wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary Jetconnect operates Boeing 737 services which originate in New Zealand. It commenced flying in 2002, has around 600 employees including 100 pilots and has flown across the Trans-Tasman since 2003.

Most of its pilots are covered by a three-year collective agreement between Jetconnect and the New Zealand Airline Pilots Association which came into force in May 2008.

Qantas Group Executive Government and Corporate Affairs, Ms Olivia Wirth, said it was a common sense decision.

"New Zealanders living and working in New Zealand for a New Zealand company should be subject to New Zealand's industrial laws and agreements and not to Australia's industrial laws," Ms Wirth said.

"The union should not be attempting to use Australia's Fair Work Act to override the industrial relations legislation and industrial agreements in other countries.

"The decision by Fair Work Australia is a comprehensive dismissal of the pilots' union's claim that the establishment of Jetconnect was to avoid Australia's industrial laws or disadvantage Qantas pilots.

"The fact is not one Qantas short-haul pilot has been made redundant since the establishment of Jetconnect.

"I would encourage the pilots' union to end its industrial campaign against Qantas and our passengers' and instead work with Qantas to reach a new enterprise bargaining agreement for our long-haul pilots."

Jetconnect operates 182 flights per week between Auckland-Sydney, Christchurch-Sydney, Wellington-Sydney, Auckland-Melbourne, Wellington-Melbourne and Auckland-Brisbane. In addition to these services, Qantas flies direct services between Sydney-Queenstown, Melbourne-Queenstown and Sydney-Auckland.

Today's decision follows the Australian Industrial Relations Commission determination in 2007 that AIPA does not have the right to cover Jetconnect pilots.

The decision can be found at: http://www.fwa.gov.au/decisionssigned/html/2011fwafb3706.htm

Contributed by Qantas