Airlines End Holiday Discounts
Sun Herald
Saturday September 23, 1989
THOUSANDS of people will have to pay more for their school holiday air fares as domestic airlines yesterday cancelled all discount air tickets until January.
People who paid a month in advance lose their 30 per cent discount under the APEX fare. They will have to pay the full fare or be handed their money back.
The move will hit hard families who hope to be together for Christmas. It will cost a Sydney adult couple an extra $264 return to the Gold Coast, an extra $702 return to Perth and an extra $272 to Melbourne. Children aged three to 15 continue to fly half fare.
"Due to the cost to the airlines of the pilots' action we have no option but to cancel all discounts until December 31," said Ansett spokesman Tony Hill.
"Only students, children and stand-by discounts are unaffected by the decision."
Mr Hill could not say how much money the airlines collected under the advance booking scheme, but said many people on APEX tickets had already cancelled because of the uncertainty of getting a flight.
Australian Airlines said its discount fares had ended "until further notice".
Meanwhile, hopes of a breakthrough in the five-week-old pilots' dispute receded yesterday when Ansett said it would not talk to the Australian Federation of Air Pilots at tomorrow's meeting of the Industrial Relations Commission in Melbourne.
"Ansett's position is unchanged," Mr Hill said. "We are paying out superannuation to those who resigned and have not applied to rejoin and we will only talk to individual pilots."
Pilots' federation president Brian McCarthy had earlier indicated the pilots were ready to accept a wage increase that was within the national wage system-that is around 6 per cent-instead of their initial claim of 29.5pc.
But Mr McCarthy said the federation would not negotiate the 29.5pc wage claim within the wage-fixing guidelines - cause of the five-week-old dispute.
Mr McCarthy said the federation would not negotiate within guidelines which did not pay any regard to specific differences between pilots and other workers represented by the ACTU.
"The commission is the ACTU," he said.
"Each time we've been there they've shown themselves to be fairly belligerent. However, we're a registered body. If they call a conference we're quite happy to go there".
Mr McCarthy said no pilots had accepted the airlines' offer to sign contracts by 5pm Friday and regain previous seniority.
"Pilots aren't signing contracts. Anyone who did would need to be certified," Mr McCarthy said.
The airlines have said they don't need a third of the 1,647 pilots who resigned almost five weeks ago, grounding Australia's domestic air fleet.
© 1989 Sun Herald
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