Australia’s Qantas Airways has apologised to its customers over issues related to lost baggage, as well as the cancellation and delay of flights, as travel demand rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic-induced slowdown.
In a video message posted on YouTube on Sunday, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline is "working hard" to remove the travel bottlenecks.
“On behalf of the national carrier, I want to apologise and assure you that we're working hard to get back to our best,” Mr Joyce said.
The airline has hired 1,500 more people since April to “have more crew in reserve to deal with a 50 per cent jump in sick leave".
Qantas is also introducing new technology to make travelling easier, he said, adding "things have already improved".
The announcement from Qantas comes as air travel across the world gets hampered due to a shortage of staff amid an improvement in demand.
Many employees who were laid off during the pandemic have moved into other occupations with more flexible work options. This has led to chaos at airports and capacity cuts at airlines.
In the UK, Heathrow airport has been blighted by a staff shortage, which led to a halt in short-haul ticket sales and a capacity cap to tackle disruption and cancellations.
Demand for air travel is recovering as border restrictions ease and people take advantage of the freedom to travel after two years of Covid-19 lockdowns.
International traffic in June more than tripled, driven by the lifting of restrictions in most parts of the Asia-Pacific, the International Air Travel Association (Iata) said.
Total air traffic in the month — measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) — rose more than two thirds, compared with June 2021, primarily propelled by an annual surge in international traffic of about 230 per cent, the global aviation body said in its monthly update released earlier this month.
The results put global traffic at about 71 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, another improvement from May's 69 per cent.
Qantas, which has been hit hard by a labour shortage, has even requested senior executives to help out with baggage handling for three months to support airport operations.
The airline is seeking 100 volunteers to work at airports in Sydney and Melbourne to deal with the situation, a senior official told the BBC earlier this month.
“Throughout this time, our customers have been very understanding," Mr Joyce said.
"So as well as saying sorry, we also want to say thank you. We know that what matters most though, is that your next journey is a smooth one. And that's why we are focused on getting Qantas back to its best."
Scores
Wales 74-24 Tonga
England 35-15 Japan
Italy 7-26 Australia
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
