There is a disturbance in the Force as the Qantas pilots union actually agrees with management on refusing to pay the operators of Brisbane International Airport up front for the construction of a new runway. We're still stunned about the union agreeing with Alan Joyce. Who knew it was ever possible?

In other news, Qantas announces further maintenance job cuts as first reported back in Episode 199 in May 2012. They will be culling nearly 500 from Avalon and Sydney, reducing Avalon to a bare minimum. Meanwhile, some aerial fire suppression operations went a little wrong in New South Wales after a helicopter filled its bucket from a sewerage treatment pond and deposited the contents on 29 firefighters. Yuk!