Qantas says proposed changes to procedures for opening and closing aircraft doors will improve safety despite opposition from unions.
Flying Kangaroo is looking to have a single work group responsible for moving ladders and opening and closing doors, which it says will reduce risk and improve control. It comes after a Jetstar plane was seen taxiing for take-off with its cargo doors open earlier this month.
According to the airline, several near misses have been attributed in part to two different groups responsible for stairs and gates (ground service providers and customer service agents, respectively) and it is consulting with Health and Safety representatives about the proposed changes.
In a statement, a Qantas spokesperson said the potential move “will make our operations safer, not less.”
“We recently conducted a review that found that having the same team responsible for both tasks reduces risk and is in line with industry best practices. There is no impact on customer service agent hours as a result of this proposed change,” the spokesperson said.
The Australian Services Union (ASU) has accused Qantas of attempting to shift responsibility for vital safety functions from in-house staff to outsourced ground handling companies.
“For Qantas to claim this is about reducing risk is cynical and misleading. It is about wanting to transfer its responsibility for the safety of staff and passengers to a third party, and it comes just a week after we see the consequences of such decisions,” said ASU deputy national secretary Scott Cowen.
“Our members do vital work every day getting Australians where they need to go and doing so safely. Shifting their responsibility to keep people safe is not the way forward.”
Swissport, which provides ground handling services for Jetstar, came under scrutiny this month after a Jetstar plane in Sydney was allowed to roll with the cargo door open.
In a statement following the incident, the Qantas Group subsidiary said it was “currently investigating how this may have happened and is working with our ground handling staff to ensure it does not happen again.”
“A rear cargo door was left open after unlocking to add an oversized piece of luggage to the hold,” the airline said.
“After the plane turned back for takeoff, our pilots received a notification that the cargo door was open and returned to the bay.
“There was no safety risk at any time, multiple safety systems ensure that a plane cannot take off with the cargo door open.”
According to Cowen, the Jetstar incident is “a flashing red light warning of the possible consequences of these measures.”
“Qantas’ highly trained and directly employed staff provide a layer of security that cannot be replicated by an under-resourced external model,” he said.
“This feature should remain internal because it provides better security results.”
Qantas says there will be no outsourcing around these changes, which would align its domestic services with Qantas flights to foreign ports, QantasLink, Jetstar and other global airlines.
