Qantas prepares to fly after court order

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.

The arbitration court ruling is a major victory in the airline’s battle with unions whose rolling strikes have forced the cancellation of 600 flights in recent months, disrupted the travel for 70,000 passengers and cost Qantas A$70 million (€53m).

But the surprise grounding of all 108 planes on Saturday, at a cost of A$20 million a day, has hurt the Australian flagship’s reputation among the tens of thousand of passengers who have been stranded around the world.

“We will be getting our aircraft back up in the air as soon as we possibly can,” Irish-born CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement within an hour of his court victory.

A limited flight schedule could begin this afternoon with the approval of aviation regulators, he said.

The Australian government, angered by a lack of warning of the grounding, called an emergency court hearing on Saturday night to end the work bans for the sake of the national economy. The arbitration court heard more than 14 hours of testimony from the airline, the government and unions. Workers have held rolling strikes and refused overtime work for weeks out of worry that some of Qantas’ 35,000 jobs would be moved overseas in a restructuring plan.

The unions wanted a temporary suspension of the employee lockout, but the airline said the strikes had been too devastating and it needed certainty to continue operating.

Tribunal president Geoffrey Giudice said the panel decided a temporary suspension would still risk Qantas’ grounding its fleet in the future and would not protect the tourism and aviation industry from damage.

“We decided that, in the particular circumstances of this case, which on the evidence, include the particular vulnerability of the tourism industry to uncertainty, suspension will not provide sufficient protection against the risk of significant damage to the tourism industry and aviation,” Giudice said.

Qantas is the largest of Australia’s four national domestic airlines, and the grounding affected 108 planes in 22 countries.

About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily, and would-be fliers this weekend were stuck at home, in hotels or airports, or even had to suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations. More than 60 flights were in the air at the time, but flew to their destinations, and Qantas was paying for passengers to book other flights.

Mr Joyce estimated that the grounding would cost the carrier $20 million a day.

German tourist Michael Messmann was trying to find a way home from Singapore yesterday. He and his wife spent five weeks travelling around Australia but found their connecting flight home to Frankfurt suddenly cancelled.

“I don’t know the details of the dispute, but it seems like a severe reaction by the airline to shut down all their flights. That seems a bit extreme,” said Messmann, 68. “After five weeks of traveling, we just want to go home.”

Australian business traveller Graeme Yeatman sided with the airline, even though he was also trying to find a new flight home to Sydney on Sunday after his flight was cancelled.

“I think the unions have too much power over Qantas. Even though this is an inconvenience for me, I’m glad the airline is drawing a line in the sand,” said Yeatman, 41.

The airline infuriated unions in August when it said it would improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based airline with its own name and brand. The five-year restructure plan will cost 1,000 jobs.