- All Qantas flights remain grounded indefinitely.
- QantasLink, Jetstar and Jet Connect flights to continue.
- Fair Work Australia hearing to stop or postpone action resumes at 2pm.
- People travelling in the next 24 hours should call Qantas on 13 13 13, but expect a long wait.
- Refunds and ticket transfers available.
- 108 aircraft grounded in 22 airports.
- Virgin offering special tickets to stranded people.
- Updates on the Qantas website. Fair Work Australia was hearing final submissions last night in the case to effectively put Qantas planes back in the air, raising hopes of a resolution, but tens of thousands of passengers remain stranded. The process was continuing late last night and the three judges will then look over what has been said. Qantas said via its Twitter feed that there would be no flights until "at least midday tomorrow. A decision on afternoon flights will be made tomorrow morning". The Federal Government sought an urgent application to end the dispute before Fair Work Australia last night, and the hearing continued into the early hours of this morning before being adjourned then begun again this afternoon. Have you been affected? Tell us your story below, call us on 6280 2211 or email online@canberratimes.com.au The Government told the hearing that the shutdown would have an immediate and severe impact on the economy, while Qantas said it would vigorously oppose moves to suspend the lockout, saying it had been left in an untenable position and had no choice. HEARING RESUMES The hearing resumed shortly after 2pm today, but in the meantime there were reports of chaos at airports across the country - and across the world - as Qantas passengers try to find alternative ways to fly. Qantas group executive Lyell Strambi, who is responsible for the airline's Air Operator's Certificate, told the hearing in Melbourne today that long-running industrial action by three unions had resulted in a gradual increase in risks on safety. Mr Strambi said Qantas had received a letter from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority on October 14, outlining their concern over the impact that long-running industrial action against the airline was having on fleet safety. Qantas had three options available, including negotiating in good faith, capitulating, or taking protected industrial action of their own. He said he took the decision to ground the airline's fleet after chief executive Alan Joyce decided the airline would take protected industrial action in the form of a lockout. Under cross-examination by Arthur Moses, SC, for the Australian and International Pilots Association, Mr Strambi said based on advice he had received, it would be unsafe for the airline to continue operating during a 72-hour notice period before the lockout because of concerns regarding fatigue and distraction among staff. On his way into this afternoon's hearing, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Jeff Lawrence accused Qantas of deliberately grounding its fleet rather than negotiating an agreement to with unions to end the industrial dispute that has crippled Australian air travel. "Clearly there has been a conspiracy here," he said. "Clearly this decision had been made for some time. "Nobody believes the decision was made on Saturday and they have been preparing for it for some time." Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten also went into the hearing, saying as he entered that the government was not looking to blame anybody over the grounding, but wanted the issue resolved quickly so that thousands of stranded passengers affected by the dispute could reach their destinations. "We certainly want Qantas flying as soon as possible," Mr Shorten said. There was enough "smart people to resolve this matter". CANBERRA AIRPORT: Airline's dominance will hit capital hard LOCALS: Snap decision leaves air travellers grounded, and angry, in Canberra ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS The unprecedented grounding of Qantas flights could have a substantial dampening effect on the economy, analysts warn. "The longer it drags on, the bigger the impact it has on tourism and potentially freight as well, so that could be a dampener coming into Christmas, a peak time for people flying," AMP chief economist Shane Oliver says. CommSec chief equities economist Craig James said many Qantas shareholders would on Monday reach for the "sell" button, sending the national carrier's share price even lower after months of languishing under the threat of strikes. Qantas shares - whose price nudged $6 in 2007 before the global financial crisis - have been on a downward trajectory all year amid disputes with pilots, engineers and ground staff on pay, conditions and job security. The shares briefly breached $2.50 in mid-February after the resumption of talks between pilots and Qantas management which had broken down amid concerns over the offshoring of jobs. Those fears proved to be well-founded, with the company in August announcing a five-year plan to turn around its loss-making international operations with the establishment of a subsidiary Asian carrier and the loss of 1000 jobs in Australia. The shares closed at $1.54 on Friday, down by 1.59 per cent. Meanwhile, the Insurance Council of Australia says it is too early to know how travel insurance companies will deal with the decision by Qantas to ground its fleet. "The decision by Qantas to withdraw all air services is unprecedented," council chief executive Rob Whelan said in a statement. "It is too early to determine the impact it will have on the insurance industry and on travellers who hold travel insurance policies. The insurance industry urges all parties to resolve this matter swiftly and provide certainty to the travelling public." 'RESOLVE DISPUTE' Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today the Government was arguing in the Fair Work Australia hearing for an end to industrial action and for a conciliation processes "and if they do not work, for there ultimately to be a determination process to end the substantive matters in dispute". "The government in this matter is seeking to bring industrial action to an end and to have the dispute resolved, so that we can proceed with certainty with our iconic airline Qantas, proceeding properly and with the circumstances where employees and Qantas know what the future holds for them," she said. "As I made clear yesterday, we took this action when the dispute escalated. "We did it because we were concerned about damage to the national economy." ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher is supporting the Commonwealth's action, saying the grounding had serious implications for the Canberra community if not resolved. "I am hopeful that the independent umpire will act swiftly in the interests of all parties including staff, the travelling public and Qantas," she said in a statement. "If the Qantas fleet remains grounded for any length of time it will certainly have an impact on Canberra tourism and business. My first thoughts however are with the many Canberrans immediately affected, including Qantas staff, who are stranded in Australian and overseas locations by the decision of the Qantas board yesterday afternoon." She said QantasLink provided a large portion of flights to and from Canberra and these were still flying. "In addition, Virgin and Brindabella Airlines continue to service Canberra and we are well served by both coach and rail services,'' she said. "The ACT Government is also liaising with coach operators to see if services can be increased - particularly between Sydney and Canberra." Qantas's drastic strategy meant the cancellation of 600 flights yesterday, including seven instant groundings. HELP ON OFFER Virgin Australia is considering putting on extra flights to help people get home and is offering special stranded traveller tickets, at a 20 per cent discount. It said this afternoon that more than 20,000 people had taken up its offer of discounted fares to stranded Qantas passengers. Qantas is offering refunds of the difference between fares. "We have so far helped over 20,000 stranded Qantas passengers with the special discounted fare through the website," a Virgin Australia spokeswoman said. "Those were for passengers who were away from their home port, because there limited capacity ... and we want to make sure it is a priority to get them home." Air New Zealand says it is also considering adding extra trans-Tasman flights to help stranded travellers. The company says it will know what it can offer by this afternoon. A plan being hatched with partners Virgin would see Air NZ replace Virgin flights flying to and from New Zealand, so Virgin can reschedule the flights to fly domestically in Australia. Greyhound bus company is also putting on extra staff to help deal with the chaos, as is travel agency Flight Centre. Jetstar flights, QantasLink flights and Qantas flights across the Tasman operated by Jetconnect will continue, as will Express Freighters Australia and Atlas Freighters flights. Jetstar says it will pick up some of the slack from the grounding of the Qantas fleet. The budget airline, a subsidiary of Qantas, has put on an extra Sydney to Melbourne service today and says it is exploring options to add more flights. A statement from the company said unsold seats on Jetstar flights were being offered to Qantas passengers at discounted prices. The airline admitted that limited availability meant overall prices were at the higher end of its normal fare range, but said bookings were already very high leading into this weekend, with average loads of up to 90 per cent. Qantas has also announced it will reimburse the difference between the cost of a new ticket (in same cabin of travel) and value of the refunded Qantas ticket for people left stranded. Qantas's grounding also comes just before a Federal Parliamentary sitting week, and there are reports the Government is chartering planes to get MPs and senators to Canberra tomorrow. Ms Gillard said last night that as a result of Qantas's "dramatic escalation" of the industrial dispute, "the Government has taken a rare decision to apply to Fair Work Australia to have the industrial action terminated and to have Fair Work Australia deal with this,'' she said. 'PREMEDITATED ACTION' Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon addressed media outside the Qantas domestic terminal at Sydney airport, accusing the airline's chief executive officer Alan Joyce of premeditated action. ''This was a preconceived, pre-planned attack on the Qantas brand by Qantas management. Obviously their intention is to offshore this airline overseas... It's not the appropriate time for [Fair Work Australia] termination to be called because there is no industrial action presently being taken by the employees. This is a cynical attempt by Qantas to destroy the economy in one breath and to bludgeon the Australian workforce in the next,'' he said. NSW Liberal Premier Barry O' Farrell is saying the Government should have acted sooner, while Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says it needs to use all its powers to get Qantas aircraft back in the sky as quickly as possible. Mr Abbott told ABC radio today that the "longer this dispute lasts, the worse it will be for our international reputation". "When you've got tens of thousands of people stranded, who are away from home, and you have tens of thousands who can't get to work, you've obviously got a very serious situation on your hands, this is why airlines are an essential service in a modern economy. This is where the government's irresponsibility kicks in,'' he said. "The government has been asleep at the wheel for weeks, they've been informed, but not alarmed, but nothing has happened in the meantime ... it's come to a catastrophic head for Australians. This is not a policy problem. This is a competency problem on the part of the government." But Labor frontbencher Nicola Roxon told Sky TV this morning that the industrial umpire - Fair Work Australia - should resolve the dispute, not the government. LOCALS: 'They just can't do that to people' Q AND A: What you need to know STUCK: Famous last Qantas words in Bangkok: 'Nothing to worry about' LONDON: Hundreds left in lurch at Heathrow ANALYSIS: Flying Kangaroo turns into the Boxing Kangaroo COMMENT: Shades of waterfront dispute in Qantas grounding Ms Gillard confirmed last night that 17 foreign leaders in Australia for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting had been booked to fly home on Qantas, and that she had broken the news to them in person during a briefing last night. Officials helped most of them find alternative flights home from the Perth meeting. "Clearly there are more people in Perth than the heads of government themselves, so we will work through [that]," she said. The issue is also expected to raise the issue of industrial relations politically again, and former workplace relations minister Peter Reith is already blaming Labor's change from WorkChoices to the Fair Work laws for the lockout. Ms Gillard said she was very proud of the Fair Work Act, which she implemented as industrial relations minister in the Rudd government, and accused the Coalition of using the strike to campaign for the return of WorkChoices. 'NO CHOICE' Earlier, Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce - who announced the shock grounding late yesterday aternoon - told ABC TV that the airline was doing the right thing by employees with salary increases. He said the easiest thing for him to do would have been to give in to union demands but that would not be in the long-term interests of the company. He also defended what appeared to be a big pay rise handed to him at Friday's annual general meeting, saying he had taken a 30 per cent pay cut in 2009 and a 20 per cent cut last year. He said he got paid less today than he did when he ran Jetstar four years ago, adding that he was not the nation's highest paid CEO. He said his salary was not outrageous and there was a lot of misinformation about it. Mr Joyce told ABC 24 that he felt he had to bring the dispute to a head. He said if Qantas had not taken the action now there would have a "slow roasting of Qantas" by the unions for another year. He apologised to customers affected by the dispute but said he had been "overwhelmed" by the support the airline had received for the action it had taken. He told Sky News this morning that Fair Work Australia would need to order a termination of industrial action from the airline's unions to get the Flying Kangaroo back in the air. "A termination stops the lockout, but we have to make a decision about putting the airline back in the air. A suspension may not necessarily mean the airline gets back in the air," he said. "If it's a suspension, we cannot put the planes back in the air without having certainty. A termination gives us certainty, a suspension, depending on what the suspension looks like, does not necessarily give us certainty." GOVERNMENT CRITICISM Assistant Treasurer and former union leader Bill Shorten today accused Qantas management of a "high handed ambush", and said 68,000 people and the tourism industry had been grossly inconvenienced. "There is no case for this radical overreaction. In industrial disputes, sure, employers have views and unions have views, but what I don't support though is the no-warning nature of what's happened," he told the ABC. "If the unions had locked out the passengers, I would have been equally outraged. But in this case it is the Qantas management that has done, in my opinion, the premature and wrong thing when plenty could have been done in a sensible nature." It comes after Transport Minister Anthony Albanese also took a swipe at the airline last night. Mr Albanese criticised Qantas for the timing of the announcment, and said it was extraordinary action for the airline to take. He said he had questioned the decision with Mr Joyce today and had told him that he was concerned about the impact on the travelling public. There had been no indication Qantas was considering this action and it had only told the Government shortly before the announcement was made publicly. Qantas had breached faith with the Government by not telling it sooner. "The fact that they argue that this was a decision made by the board this morning to ground the airline by 5pm - I'll leave it to those that know something about the aviation industry to deliberate on whether they think that decision was made this morning or whether there's been some planning prior to this morning," he said. There are also unconfirmed reports that Qantas had booked hotel rooms across the world in recent days, suggesting the action had been planned for some time. It comes after Qantas revealed yesterday that the industrial action had already cost $68 million. About 70,000 passengers had been affected and more than 600 flights cancelled. In August, Mr Joyce announced a major restructuring that included establishing two new subsidiary carriers in Asia, using cheaper labour, and 1000 job losses to save the airline's loss-making international arm. The unions are insisting on reciprocal conditions for employees of any Qantas subsidiary businesses overseas, a demand that Joyce claims will kill the airline. with smh.com.au
