Episode 140: Fuel Surcharges and Price Fixing Freight Cartels

It's a cracker Autumn in Melbourne with nine days in a row of flyable weather for the hot air balloons over the city.We give a shout out to Wheelies with Wings which is the Australian organisation that gets physically disabled people flying.The RAAF are using their C-17s a lot for their Humanitarian Aid & Disaster Recovery so they are very happy to receive their 5th aircraft.Fuel surcharges are being introduced by Virgin Australia on domestic routes and V Australia on their international routes, plus we note that Australian fuel prices are linked to those on the Singapore trade bourse, not the USA's.Air New Zealand have put out a profit warning as they're likely to make a loss and they're also suing Qantas for defamation as Qantas' press release has implicated Air New Zealand in the price fixing freight cartel with no evidence at all.The Fair Work Tribunal has approved the Qantas engineers engaging in limited industrial action. Meanwhile the Australian Council of Trade Unions has petitioned Fair Work Australia to "put the brake on" establishing offshore jobs to avoid Australian award requirements.