Qantas flights are back in the air, two days after a
decision to ground the airline's entire fleet over an industrial
dispute left tens of thousands of travellers stranded worldwide.
Cheers were heard at Melbourne Airport before the first domestic flight to Sydney took to the skies on Monday afternoon.
It
came after an early morning decision by employment relations umpire
Fair Work Australia, ordering a termination of industrial action that
has dragged on since March.
The dispute escalated on Saturday when
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce announced all flights would be
grounded and workers would be locked out from Monday because months of
strike action by unions were costing the company an estimated $A20
million ($25 million) a day.
The first international flight, from
Christchurch to Sydney, landed at 3.45pm AEST (5.45pm NZT), but
passengers on board that flight weren't happy with the airline.
UK
resident Cedric Clifford, who is on a five-week holiday around
Australia and New Zealand with his wife, said he may think twice before
flying with Qantas again.
"The man in the middle is the customer and the customer is easy to lose, but boy is he difficult to get back," he said.
"The
flight was fine but we spent the last two days in New Zealand wondering
how we're going to get from Sydney back home." Many other passengers
are still facing delays as Qantas works to clear the backlog.
The
delays ruined a trip for German backpacker Stephanie Giertz, who would
have to stay Monday night at Brisbane Airport, before catching a flight
to Adelaide on Tuesday.
"I have had enough. I am travelling alone and this is the hardest challenge of my trip."
Meanwhile,
unions representing Qantas workers are considering challenging the ban
on strike action, but say they still hope to settle their industrial
dispute with the airline.
Transport Workers Union (TWU) national secretary Tony Sheldon said the union would announce its intentions in the coming days.
NZN