Qantas grounds fleet
 

A day after the CEO and Chair of the remuneration committee received a hostile reception for huge salary increase and bonus despite drop in share value and no dividend they have grounded all their aircraft and locked out all Australian staff.

All domestic and international flights grounded
Lockout of staff will commence Monday 8.00pm
Thousands of passengers affected worldwide
108 aircraft grounded in 22 airports around the globe
13,305 passengers booked to travel from overseas ports to Australia in the next 24 hours
1,310 international passengers may be at international airports now waiting for flights to depart
Federal Government is frustrated and concerned about the future of Qantas
Qantas updating passengers via its website, Facebook and Twitter
QantasLink and Jetstar will continue to operate flights

It looks like Joyce's Plan to send Qantas to Asia except for its cutprice Jetstar brand is on track faster than anyone thought.

My boyfriend is in Melbourne waiting to leave for Alice Springs. Slightly concerned about the balance of his trip.

I take it this is not just a 24 hour lockout?

I don't think it is likely this will be only 24 hours of disruption. Your boyfriend should scramble to find an alternate flight. Qantas will give full refunds, though who's to say how quickly. Details at www.qantas.com.au. Click on 'travel alert' at the top of the home page.

Not sure how this will play out for him. He's on a birding trip with a few other people (8) and they have a bunch of internal flights planned in the next 3 weeks.

Sigh. Scheduled to leave the US Monday night for Australia and on to New Zealand. Timing doesn't seem to be in our favor.

Sealstep, have you have had any luck finding alternate flights? I'm anxious to hear from a Canadian friend currently in NZ booked with Qantas to Alice Springs. They are to take the train from there and of course it is prepaid. I can't imagine the government will allow this to last too long, but that's not much consolation for those who plan to travel in the next few days.

Flights to and from NZ are still flying - they are called Qantas connect. Other domestic airlines are putting on extra flights to help ease travel.

The dispute involves 3 unions and has been going on since mid September with revolving strikes that have caused lots of disruption. With no resolution in sight.

I guess something drastic had to happen to bring it to a head. But no one in Oz predicted this. But most here think this will escalate a resolution. The predictions are that mid week flights will as usual. But who knows!!

I flew home from the UK 2 days ago on Qantas...so I guess I was a lucky traveller.

Thanks for the background, aussie_10. No updates in today in Canadian media that I can find.

Question, would it be crazy to buy a flight on Quantas from the US to New Zealand next weekend? All the other airlines cost significantly more. Not sure how quickly this may be resolved and what the ripple effect will be.

I think it depends on how flexible your travel plans are. Quantas will refund you if they are not flying on that date, but that does you little good if you have to be in NZ at a certain time. My guess is that it will be resolved by then, but it's your money. I expect the other airlines are opportunistically charging top dollar now, knowing that travellers are avoiding Qantas. I just heard from a friend stranded in Sydney, who says all the hotels are charging $250 a night as that is what Qantas will pay. (fortunately for them, they had prebooked so got an upgrade.)

I was supposed to fly today to SYD and then onto PER. No go. Looks like my trip to Western Australia is going to be a washout. I have been monitoring several websites. Still no resolution.

AlwaysOnTheRoad, but not always in the air! Big bummer. Where are you travelling from?

thank you, eliztravels

Qantas flights will be resuming due to a ruling by the FWA. Qantas website has not been updated, but things should be back to normal within a few days.

Traveling from East Coast. No way to rebook at present. QF website not update, GDS not updated, no hope for getting there in time for having a reasonable trip. Could have stood losing a day but not three or four. Oh well, another time.

Such a shame. You'd think the least Qantas could do would be make it possible for their customers to rebook. Didn't they think of that before they grounded everything?

Qantas have a lot to answer for, and not all pertinent to their current disputes/disruptions (mostly now sorted for the interim, it seems).

Wa-a-a-a-y back, When I went to school, we were taught that the letter "u" ALWAYS followed "Q" in EVERY word where there is a "Q" but it seems Qantas is the globally accepted exception.

We were told that it was an acronym (with a ruler across the knuckles to ensure the message got through), for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, and not a real word.

Some folk still seem to have difficulty letting go of that concept, (ie: 'U' always follows 'Q' in those words..blah, blah) and I would dearly love to bump into my old schoolteachers now, and rub their faces in any weekend/global newspaper.

Unfortunately (or, fortunately mayhaps) most of those teachers would have passed on, several decades ago, methinks.

Signed,

A grumpy pedantic/old bugger. (but not as pedantic or grumpy..or even as old, as they were way back then...)

I think we will be among the lucky ones! Our flight has left Sydney for Dallas, which means we should have a plane tonight. I am crossing my fingers, and hope everyone else can get where they need to go. Not a fun time.

Glad to hear that things will likely turn out okay for you. But not a fun way to start a holiday. Hope it exceeds your expectations from here on in.