QANTAS Airways could begin returning its grounded fleet to the skies as early as today after an Australian court intervened in a bitter labour dispute by ending strikes and cancelling a staff lock-out.

Australia’s government ordered an emergency arbitration hearing today after Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet amid a bitter dispute with striking workers, stranding passengers around the world.

A BIRD and a bolt of lightning were the latest problems to strike Qantas, the airline said yesterday, causing the fourth flight turnaround since an engine blowout on an Airbus superjumbo caused a global safety scare.

AN ELECTRICAL fault sent smoke into the cockpit of a Qantas Boeing 747 and forced pilots to turn back yesterday in the latest in a string of problems for the airline since an engine explosion on a superjumbo prompted a global safety scare.

Rolls-Royce is to temporarily replace complete jet engines suffering from oil leaks which came to light after one disintegrated in flight, aviation sources said today.

Tests uncovered oil leaks in three Rolls-Royce engines on Qantas’ grounded Airbus A380s, the airline’s chief executive officer said today, as engineers tried to zero in on the cause of an engine failure on board one of the carrier’s superjumbo jets last week.

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the airline is suspending all flights of its six Airbus A380 jetliners after a mid-air engine problem on a flight from Singapore.

THIRTY-SIX passengers and crew were injured, some seriously, in the mid-air drama that forced a Qantas jetliner to make an emergency landing, the Australian carrier and police said yesterday.

Australian airline Qantas moved to inspect oxygen cylinders on its entire fleet today as investigators focused on a missing tank as the suspected cause of a mid-air blast that tore a hole in a jumbo jet carrying more than 350 people.

Qantas Airways Ltd, Australia’s flagship carrier, announced today it was slashing its work force by 1,500 people worldwide and abandoning plans to hire 1,200 more as it tries to deal with skyrocketing fuel costs.

Australian national carrier Qantas Airways said today it had accepted a €6.7bn takeover offer from a private equity consortium including the country’s Macquarie Bank and the Texas Pacific Group.

British Airways has sold its 18.24% stake in Qantas, the Australian airline said today.

Australia’s Qantas Airways says it could further increase the fuel surcharge that it has added to ticket prices to compensate for “significant” rises in operating costs because of high oil prices.

The Iseq index of Irish shares was up 83.44 points to 5189.81 today, after yesterday saw an estimated €2bn wiped off the underlying value of Irish shares.

Australia’s competition watchdog has rejected a proposed alliance between Qantas Airways and Air New Zealand, saying the partnership would raise air fares and would not be in the public interest.