By Scott Rochfort and Michael West
QANTAS has scrambled to ease growing concerns among some of its big corporate customers that its safety and maintenance standards could be slipping, after a spate of incidents that has dented the airline's once enviable safety record.
BHP Billiton and ANZ are among some of Qantas's corporate customers to have received a briefing in recent days by the head of safety for Qantas, Captain Geoff Sartori, after it is believed the companies raised concerns about the airline's safety procedures.
The risk of losing a corporate customer such as ANZ or BHP Billiton would be of significant concern to Qantas, which has a stranglehold on the multibillion-dollar corporate travel market.
Qantas described the meetings with corporate clients on its safety procedures as a business-as-usual activity.
"We are more than happy to brief our corporate and other clients on these programs and systems and have been doing so recently," a spokesman for Qantas said.
"Qantas is proud of the safety systems it has in place."
The spokesman declined to say if the meetings were linked to the recent safety mishaps the airline has encountered.
Worries over Qantas's safety procedures were fuelled in July, when a 747 flying to Melbourne had to make an emergency landing in Manila after an exploding oxygen tank blew a hole in the plane's fuselage.
Qantas was forced to ground several of its 737s due to shoddy paperwork, and this month the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said that it had "uncovered signs of emerging problems" within Qantas.
Since the collapse of Ansett in 2001, Qantas has had the lion's share of the highly lucrative domestic corporate market. But with Virgin Blue aggressively targeting the business market with its new premium economy class, frequent flyer scheme and lounges, Qantas can no longer afford to be complacent.
Virgin Blue's plans to launch flights to the United States in December with its V Australia subsidiary also represents the first significant challenge to Qantas in more than a decade for a share of the lucrative market in business travel on the largely uncompetitive route to Los Angeles.
BHP Billiton declined to comment on its recent meetings with Qantas. ANZ attempted to play down the significance of the meeting.
"As part of ANZ's ongoing relationship with Qantas we received a briefing which was business as usual," a bank spokesman said.
The bank added that it had "a close working relationship with Qantas".