Kiwis hit by Aust. dispute

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 1

Kiwis hit by Aust. dispute

By CULLEN SMITH Many Christchurch travellers are being caught in Australia’s domestic airline dispute.

Australian domestic pilots resigned eri masse on August 24 in support of wage claims as high as 30 per cent for senior officers. The branch manager of Thomas Cook Travel, Mr Ken Lusher, said the number of clients with problems was growing daily. One family was caught in Alice Springs unable to get back to Melbourne for a flight home without facing a gruelling road journey of several days. Mr Lusher said the husband, who stayed in Christchurch while his wife and children visited relatives in Alice Springs, was unable to claim a lump-sum payment from his travel cancellation insurance.

The man wanted to send the money to his wife so she could make alternative arrangements, but travellers must pay first and claim later under the terms of their policy. An elderly woman was holidaying in Perth when the dispute flared. She was able to get a Qantas flight to Sydney, where she had planned to stay another 10 days. But Mr Lusher said the airline insisted she took a connecting trans-Tasman flight or she would be classed as a domestic passenger and would not qualify for the Perth-Sydney sector. The ANZ Bank travel manager, Mr Gary Brush, said he had clients who were forced to take a ferry from Launceston, Tasmania, to Melbourne rather than their booked flight from Hobart to return to Christchurch via Melbourne.

Mr Garry Waterreus, the managing director of Runaway Travel, said many Australian business people were taking advantage of cheap fares to fly to New Zealand and connect with flights to other Australian cities. The dispute is reported to be costing Queensland’s tourism industry about $27 million a day. ‘New contracts,’ page 10