Qantas has gone out on a limb to shelter Canberrans from recent strike action in order to protect one of its most lucrative domestic routes, the Transport Workers Union has said.
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Union officials say the company has flown more contingency staff to the capital to cover affected flights than it has in Melbourne and Sydney.
Qantas has denied the claim but the threat of losing its hold on the territory is real, with Virgin Australia reporting a boost in bookings alongside heavy investment in the expanding Canberra market.
TWU ACT branch official Ben Sweaney said Qantas had flown an extra 50 workers into the territory when 70 engineers walked off the job earlier this month.
Without the company's fleet of turbo prop planes run by the company's regional arm, QantasLink, he said more Canberrans would have found their feet firmly planted on the ground.
''We know the ACT is one of the most profitable ports in the Qantas network and it is quite regularly reported that the Canberra domestic route regularly saves Qantas' bacon,'' he said.
It had been going ''above and beyond'' to ensure the Canberra route did not experience shortages.
Qantas admitted it had been forced to rely more heavily on its turbo prop fleet.
A company spokesman said given the Qantas Link team had its own engineers, none of its planes was grounded.
A number were able to take on extra passengers whose regular flights had been cancelled.
But the spokesman denied Canberra had received any special treatment.
''We did have contingency staff in Canberra, however it was less than Melbourne and Sydney,'' he said.
The company refused to provide exact figures on the number of contingency staff in each port.
Meanwhile, the strikes have come at a perfect time for Virgin Australia as it looks to increase its share in the Canberra-Sydney route.
The company announced it would add another six services a day to the route in July and is now considering bringing a Boeing 737 into service a month early in order to cater for extra demand.
A Virgin spokeswoman said bookings had definitely risen in the past month, though she could not guess as to how many of these were a direct result of cancellations with other carriers.
''We have had increased bookings over the past month but you have to remember that we also just launched our Canberra Connect service, so some of the increase is likely to come from that service as well,'' she said. Qantas has announced 109 flights would be cancelled this week despite further strike action by the Transport Workers Union being placed on hold at the last minute.
No Canberra flights are affected.
Meanwhile, the union representing Qantas pilots, the Australian and International Pilots Association, said yesterday that Qantas had suspended negotiations over a new workplace agreement. The union said the airline had informed it that it was walking away from scheduled conciliation meetings at Fair Work Australia.
But Qantas has denied the union claim, saying it is ''committed to negotiations with the pilots' union'', and had been doing so for 14 months.
Chief executive Alan Joyce said yesterday the dispute between Qantas and the unions was unlikely to be quickly resolved.
The airline is in dispute with engineers, pilots and ground staff over pay and working conditions.
with AAP