Qantas pilots are considering a plan to personally invest $50,000 each as part of a “blocking stake” to stop the airline’s $11 billion sale to a private equity consortium backed by Macquarie Bank.
The stake by 2500 pilots would form part of a union campaign to encourage shareholders to reject the $5.60 a share offer from the consortium, Airline Partners Australia, to buy Qantas and turn it into a private equity company.
Unions are deeply worried that the bidding consortium plans to slash jobs, sell assets, cut regional routes and send maintenance work offshore to pay off debt, if the sale to a private investment fund is successful.