NATIONAL JET SYSTEMS Pilot Council

The newly constituted National Jet Systems (NJS) Council has grown with the nomination and successful election of Anthony Clouting (Brisbane), Eric Galliers (Brisbane) and Justin Gordon (Melbourne). The first formal Council meeting is scheduled for 21 June and there will be many significant issues to discuss.

Fleet Transition to A220 type

The last NJS EA was rushed through by the company during the pandemic on the premise (falsely the AFAP believed) that it was required to enable a new A220 fleet to be directed towards NJS as a replacement for the ageing 717 fleet. Consequently, the early part of 2023 has seen ongoing consultation regarding the details around the transition to the new fleet.

Initially the plan would have seen the retirement of the B717s being completed by September 2024, with the first retirements occurring in March 2023 and first A220 introduced in November 2023.

The complexities include the company cannot, after the introduction of the first few aircraft into Melbourne, detail where the subsequent aircraft will be introduced. This has understandably led to nervousness at some of the bases despite the company indicating that no base is intended to close.

Request for External/Foreign Pilots

Further problems have occurred in that to avoid "greenon-green" issues within the flight deck, CASA is requiring that at least one crew member must have 100 hours on type, which for a completely new aircraft in Australia and with minimal new hulls across the world, has resulted in the company seeking the AFAP’s approval for them to recruit foreign pilots (ie to vary their current Labour Agreement).

As a result of a request to recruit ten foreign pilots into NJS the AFAP provided qualified agreement on the basis that any enhancement in pay for these external pilots would have to also be applied to current NJS pilots.

That NJS seek further variations from CASA regarding the 100 on type and that current pilots are guaranteed not to be barred from accessing a base of their choice.

One of the problems from the short-sightedness of forcing through a sub-standard EA for the new 220’s is that historically attracting pilots into Australia for completely new aircraft would need more than an offer of permanency to reside.

Salary inducements for pilots from abroad to operate such a new aircraft globally, will in all likelihood be way above those offered in the current EA.

While it is expected that there will be ongoing consultation, there are currently increased pressures in that the retirement of the B717s has now seemingly been sped up,

Expressons of interest from current pilots wanting to transfer to the new fleet have been delayed and with B717s being retired quicker than new A220s are introduced, the subsequent knock-on effect on rosters and operating out of non-home basis is further complicating matters.

On a positive note the original 20 A220 hulls destined for NJS has been increased to 29 and it is expected that the pilot group will increase from 150 to 250 pilots. It will be a busy few months for the new Council.

New Contracts

In addition to the pressures being exerted with the fleet replacement, Qantas chose to also issue new Qantas contracts for those NJS pilots previously employed by Cobham and who transferred across with the purchase in 2020. Despite the delay to issuing new contracts, they were recently circulated along with very short timeframes to sign.

After interjection from the AFAP we have obtained some clarifications from the company regarding the contract and further meetings are planned to raise other concerns.

Thankfully the immediate signing deadlines have (at the time of writing) been pushed back to the end of June, although the AFAP is seeking this be extended until exchanges between the parties have concluded.