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By Daniel Baxter |
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December 16, 2010 - Qantas will move into the Western
Australian fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) resources air charter
market, with agreement reached for the airline to
purchase local operator Network Aviation.
Rather than relocating the employee and their family to
a town near the work site, the employee is flown to the
work site where they work for a number of days and are
then flown back to their home town for a number of days
of rest.
Fly-in fly-out is very commonly used in the mining industry, as mines are often in areas far from towns. Usually a fly-in fly-out job involves working a long shift (e.g. 12 hours each day) for a number of continuous days with all days off spent at home rather than at the work site. |
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As the
employee's work days are almost entirely taken up by working,
sleeping and eating, there is little need for any recreation
facilities at the work site. However, companies are increasingly
offering facilities such as pools, tennis courts and gyms as a
way of attracting and retaining skilled staff.
Generally
fly-in fly-out work sites use portable buildings as typically
there is no long-term commitment to the work site (e.g. the mine
will close once the minerals have been extracted). Employers prefer fly-in fly-out arrangements when the cost of establishing facilities of sufficient quality to attract families to live locally will exceed the cost of creating basic facilities for a fly-in fly-out community plus the cost of airfares.
Qantas
Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce, said the acquisition
would provide a strong growth opportunity, new revenue stream
and further diversification for the Qantas Group.
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