Qantas hyrer utlendinger - Curt Lewis

Qantas wants to bring in overseas pilots QantasLink wants the Federal Government to allow it address "an acute pilot shortage" by temporarily bringing in simulator instructors and experienced pilots from overseas. QantasLink said the agreement will enable pilots to be admitted for a period beyond the existing two-year window permitted under the current skilled visa program. "Attempts to encourage experienced aviators to move to Australia for contracts shorter than five years have proven uncompetitive in what is a global market for these sought-after skills," the company said in a statement. "The agreement would allow QantasLink to gradually restore capacity it has had to remove as a result of the shortage until its longer-term solutions - including the Qantas Group's pilot academy - have time to kick in." QantasLink said world airlines were experiencing shortages as the world economy picks up at a faster rate than new pilots can be trained. "QantasLink is a key entry point for new pilots into the Qantas Group, so it is particularly impacted by the shortage," the company said. "QantasLink's overseas recruitment is expected to focus on attracting up to 75 senior pilots and simulator instructors in the first year, with up to 55 per year as needed after that, for five years. The call comes after criticism of Qantas services into regional areas such as North West Queensland. In November Qantas said frequent cancellations into Mount Isa and Cloncurry were caused by aircraft maintenance taking longer than expected and reserve flight crew pilots tied up with training a large intake of new pilots but they were taking "proactive steps" to improve reliability by adjusting the network and schedule. "These changes reduce the overall number of flights on some routes, and instead use larger aircraft to maintain capacity," the airline said at the time. "Alliance Airlines (will) operate some flights on behalf of QantasLink over the coming months, including for QantasLink flights between Mount Isa and Brisbane (with their F100 aircraft)."