Qantas Airways has indicated it will reject calls for its 49 per cent-held budget arm Jetstar Asia to cease flight services to Burma.
About a dozen protesters demonstrated outside the national carrier’s annual general meeting in Perth today, saying Jetstar should end its three flights-a-week service to Burma because it was helping to prop up a military dictatorship.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told shareholders that Jetstar had a ‘‘policy of constructive engagement’’ with Burma.
He said the airline provided a valuable service by providing charities with access to Burma.
‘‘World Vision’s Tim Costello says Jetstar should provide the link there because it provides access to the country,’’ Mr Joyce said.
Burma has been under military rule since 1962.
Its democracy icon, the Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in the last elections in 1990.
AAP
