Virgin Australia’s cabin crew have been offered a pay increase of up to 32 per cent in a bid to stave off planned strikes through Christmas.
It comes as the airline’s CEO warns industrial action could hurt the carrier’s long-term viability.
Airlineratings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas says the flight attendants’ desired pay conditions are in fact “closer to a 60 per cent increase”.
“They also want more time off, working less hours – the range of things plus the pay increase brings them up to being better paid or equally paid to Qantas flight attendants,” he told Sky News Australia.
“The issue here is that Qantas controls the business market – that’s where the real big bucks are and unless you control the business market, you can’t be paid the same sort of salaries as people who service the business market.”
