The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) has filed proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court alleging that Qantas breached its enterprise agreement by handing key ‘receive, dispatch and towing’ duties for its incoming Airbus A321XLR fleet to third-party ramp contractors Swissport and Menzies. The tasks represent about 70 per cent of a line Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer’s traditional workload.
The union argues the airline failed to consult despite a 2025 High Court ruling and a $210 million compensation order over pandemic-era outsourcing. ALAEA secretary Steve Purvinas says the decision “rips the heart out of the LAME role” and risks safety because ground staff lack the same licence coverage. Qantas counters that the change lets engineers focus on “complex maintenance” and insists no jobs will be lost as it expands its narrow-body fleet.
The fresh lawsuit lands as Qantas takes delivery of the third of 48 A321XLRs that will progressively replace ageing 737-800s. Any injunction or industrial action could disrupt domestic and short-haul international schedules frequented by corporate travellers—particularly on east-coast ‘triangle’ routes where the new aircraft are being introduced first.
![Qantas sued again as engineers claim new A321XLR ground duties were unlawfully outsourced]()
For travel departments already juggling fleet transitions and potential schedule shifts, streamlining visa logistics can remove another layer of uncertainty. VisaHQ’s Australian platform (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) offers end-to-end support for business travellers, from real-time entry requirements to expedited processing, ensuring staff are cleared to fly at short notice even if industrial action forces itinerary changes.
Travel managers should monitor the court timetable—Judge Rania Skaros has set an expedited case-management hearing for mid-March—and begin contingency planning for potential stop-work meetings that could coincide with the busy Easter travel period. Companies with time-critical fly-in/fly-out operations may wish to hold provisional seats on rival carriers or charter providers until the dispute’s trajectory is clearer.
More broadly, the case re-opens questions about Qantas’s employee-relations culture just as the airline seeks to win back premium-traveller trust. Any court-ordered reversal could see costly rehiring requirements that feed into higher airfares—a downstream cost corporate travel budgets would have to absorb.
The union argues the airline failed to consult despite a 2025 High Court ruling and a $210 million compensation order over pandemic-era outsourcing. ALAEA secretary Steve Purvinas says the decision “rips the heart out of the LAME role” and risks safety because ground staff lack the same licence coverage. Qantas counters that the change lets engineers focus on “complex maintenance” and insists no jobs will be lost as it expands its narrow-body fleet.
The fresh lawsuit lands as Qantas takes delivery of the third of 48 A321XLRs that will progressively replace ageing 737-800s. Any injunction or industrial action could disrupt domestic and short-haul international schedules frequented by corporate travellers—particularly on east-coast ‘triangle’ routes where the new aircraft are being introduced first.
For travel departments already juggling fleet transitions and potential schedule shifts, streamlining visa logistics can remove another layer of uncertainty. VisaHQ’s Australian platform (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) offers end-to-end support for business travellers, from real-time entry requirements to expedited processing, ensuring staff are cleared to fly at short notice even if industrial action forces itinerary changes.
Travel managers should monitor the court timetable—Judge Rania Skaros has set an expedited case-management hearing for mid-March—and begin contingency planning for potential stop-work meetings that could coincide with the busy Easter travel period. Companies with time-critical fly-in/fly-out operations may wish to hold provisional seats on rival carriers or charter providers until the dispute’s trajectory is clearer.
More broadly, the case re-opens questions about Qantas’s employee-relations culture just as the airline seeks to win back premium-traveller trust. Any court-ordered reversal could see costly rehiring requirements that feed into higher airfares—a downstream cost corporate travel budgets would have to absorb.
