Expecting the Australian flag carrier to ‘pre-fund’ a new runway at Brisbane Airport is “unreasonable” and likely to make the airline less competitive, according to the carrier’s pilots’ union.

Although the runway is “needed”, the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) president Captain Barry Jackson said in today’s environment airlines do not have the “margins” to pay out a long-term investment, and requesting Qantas to pay-up was simply “not fair”.

“Eight years is far too long a lead time for a commercial agreement – that’s the sort of time frame that government usually looks at,” he explained.  

“As the ACCC Chairman Rob Sims very correctly points out, ‘normally when you’ve got parties paying for lumpy new investments there is not a long lead time between the spend and getting use of that investment’.”

He added that it was “high time” stakeholders stopped leaning on airlines to help make them money.

“Australian airports are some of the most expensive to operate into and out of in the Asia Pacific, and it is unreasonable to expect Qantas to stretch and cover that gap,” he said.