Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet Saturday; suddenly locking out striking workers after weeks of flight disruptions an executive said could close down the world's 10th largest airline piece by piece.The Australian government called for an emergency arbitration hearing, adjourned early Sunday morning after hearing evidence from the unions and airline. It will resume Sunday afternoon when the government will argue that the airline be ordered to fly in Australia's economic interests.
Planes in the air continued to their destinations, and at least one taxiing flight stopped on the runway, a flier said. Among the stranded passengers are 17 world leaders attending a Commonwealth summit in the western city of Perth.
When the grounding was announced, 36 international and 28 domestic Australian flights were in the air, said a Qantas spokesperson, who declined to be named citing company policy.
Qantas 108-grounded airplanes but did not say how many flights were involved. The representative could not confirm an Australian Broadcasting Corp. television report that 13,305 passengers were booked to fly Qantas international flights within 24 hours of the grounding.
As expected, the lockout will have little impact in the United States. Only about 1,000 people fly daily between the United States and Australia, said aviation consultant Michael Boyd. "It's not a big deal," he said. Qantas is "not a huge player here."
Los Angeles International Airport spokesperson Diana Sanchez said Saturday that she was not aware of any passengers stranded at the airport because of the strike. Five Los Angeles-bound Qantas flights expected to arrive as scheduled were already in the air when the lockout began and, she said.
Sanchez said Qantas has indicated it plans to cancel the handful of flights scheduled to depart from Los Angeles on Saturday.
The real problems for travellers are more likely to be at far busier Qantas hubs in Singapore and London's Heathrow Airport, says another aviation consultant, Robert Mann.
What we are really seeing taking place at Qantas is really only just the tip of the iceberg with the design all along being to merge all major business in Australia into just six major companies.
The smaller businesses are going to be financially devastated through taxation (the carbon tax) and once ruined merged in with the larger companies.
The policies for the running of the country are coming from overseas from the think tanks like the Adam Smith Institute. They are then passed onto the Business Council of Australia, then onto to the politicians, and then onto the people.
The Prime Minister of the nation is under instructions to implement the policies that are handed down to her, or run the risk of being replaced just as quickly as what she stabbed former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the back.
While in opposition, the Liberal Party say whatever they like. However, the Liberals win power after the next elections they also must also follow instructions. If they do not do as instructed, they also will run the same risks as the current government of replacement.
At Qantas' expense, booked passengers were being rescheduled chief executive Alan Joyce said. Bookings already had collapsed after unions warned travellers to fly other airlines through the busy Christmas-New Year period.
He told a news conference in Sydney the unions' actions have caused a crisis for Qantas.
"They are trashing our strategy and our brand," Joyce said. "They are deliberately destabilizing the company and there is no end in sight."
Union leaders criticized the action as extreme. Qantas is among the most profitable airlines in the world, but Joyce estimated the grounding will cost Qantas $20 million a day.
Qantas already had reduced and rescheduled flights for weeks after union workers struck and refused to work overtime out of worries a restructuring plan would move some of Qantas' 35,000 jobs overseas.
The grounding of the largest of Australia's four national domestic airlines will take a major economic toll and could disrupt the national Parliament, due to resume in Canberra on Tuesday after a two-week recess. Qantas' budget subsidiary Jetstar continues to fly.
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese described the grounding as "disappointing" and "extraordinary." Albanese was angry that Qantas gave him only three hours' notice.
"This is a crisis for Qantas. If the action continues as the unions have promised, we will have no choice but to close down Qantas part by part," he added.
Malaysia-based Air Asia flies to three Australian destinations, plus New Zealand.
The recent strike action in which two unions have had rolling four-hour strikes on differing days has most severely affected Qantas domestic flights.
In mid-October, Qantas grounded five jets and reduced domestic flights by almost 100 flights a week because aircraft mechanics had reduced the hours they were prepared to work.
Qantas doubled annual profit to AU$250 million it announced in August but warned the business environment was too challenging to forecast earnings for the current fiscal year.
However, with the plan being to merge all of the major airlines in the world into just six companies, the grounding of the Qantas planes seems to be quite indicative of what was forecasted dozens of years ago to take place.
One fact remains indisputably clear, whatever the outcome of all of the current airline disruption those behind the World Government are going to get what they want irrespective of the demands of the workers.
The aforementioned are nothing more than pawns in a much larger game, with the main objective of the bosses at Qantas being to destroy all of the hard won conditions workers have fought for over the years to make them nothing much more than slaves to the higher echelons of the company .
If the demands of the workers result in the termination of their requests, those same workers will to return to work without having achieved anything at all. If that is the result, then the vast majority of their jobs will go overseas anyway.
Alternatively, if the result of this fight results in the workers winning and therefore getting what they asked for then the airline will close down to be then sold off to overseas conglomerates.
Either way, the good old worker is going to be the loser, as he will be every time something like this sort of thing happens.
Of this fact you may be certain; Julia Gillard will not become involved with the current crisis. Accordingly, there will be no interference, or assistance, at all from the Australian Prime Minister relative to this current crisis.
