KEY POINTS:
Air Nelson pilots may strike again after talks over a new collective contract were unsuccessful.
The New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association (NZALPA) said it today recommended the Air Nelson pilots strike, following nine months of unsuccessful talks.
The pilots held half-day strikes on April 4 and March 25 which saw the cancellation of 34 flights each time.
NZALPA executive director Rick Mirkin said Air Nelson, an Air New Zealand wholly-owned subsidiary, has not increased its pilots' pay in two-years.
Co-pilots started on $42,000 a year and captains on $68,000.
"Like new doctors, pilots often have large loans to repay from expensive flight training and it is extremely difficult for new pilots with families to make ends meet," Mr Mirkin said.
He said talks over the new collective contract had come to a "sticking point" over the pilots' request to have one reasonable weekend off a month.
They were also asking for improvements to rosters which were "not done very fairly at the moment".
Mr Mirkin said the pilots had gone out of their way to avoid disruption to the travelling public and said Air Nelson had refused to cooperate in bargaining with the Employment Relations Authority which "could have prevented industrial action from continuing".
"But, with the refusal of Air Nelson's management, unfortunately we may be looking ahead to some disruption to airline service during the school holidays next month."
Air Nelson general manager John Hambleton said the claim that the pilots were not well paid was "misleading and mischievous".
He said Air Nelson captains earned on average more than $97,000, and its pilots based in Nelson were in the top five per cent of Nelson wage earners.
More than half of Air Nelson's pilots were captains.
Mr Hambleton said on average, Air Nelson line pilots worked 31 duty hours a week, and meeting the association's claims for time off would mean the airline would need to employ more than 30 additional pilots, at an annual cost of more than $3.5 million.
"This is clearly economically unsustainable. There is no way we could accept such a significant loss of productivity in a group that works an average of 31 hours a week," he said.
"The global aviation industry is clearly under pressure as a result of high oil prices, with 24 airlines having gone bust in the past six months. We are not immune from such economic volatility and resulting softening of demand."
Mr Hambleton said the majority of pilots had received annual service-based pay increases over the past two years.
He disagreed with the claim the association had endeavoured to minimise disruption to the travelling public, saying their last full strike was during the peak time of Easter holidays.
The airline would continue to deal with future strikes with minimal disruption to customers, he said.
- NZPA
