Australia’s Qantas Airways returned to the air on Monday after grounding its entire global fleet over the weekend in a bold tactic to force the government to intervene in the nation’s worst labour dispute in a decade.
Qantas took the drastic step to ground all flights on Saturday, disrupting 70,000 passengers and spurring the government and its labour-market regulator to seek a quick end to hostilities between the airline and unions.
At the government’s instigation, Australia’s labour tribunal ordered Qantas to resume flights and banned trade unions, which have waged a damaging campaign of industrial action, from staging more strikes while negotiations continued.
“That was the only way we could bring that to a head,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told reporters after 36 hours of round-the-clock brinkmanship.
Later, after being given the all-clear from aviation regulators, Qantas resumed flights from Sydney with an Airbus A330 bound for Jakarta.
Joyce, dubbed a "kamikaze" by one newspaper for effectively staging his own strike against the unions, came under fire from Canberra and also credit rating agencies for the grounding.
Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s signalled possible credit downgrades for the airline on Monday, citing the grounding and the risk of brand damage. Both agencies currently rate Qantas at the lower end of investment grade.
{{/usCountry}}Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s signalled possible credit downgrades for the airline on Monday, citing the grounding and the risk of brand damage. Both agencies currently rate Qantas at the lower end of investment grade.
{{/usCountry}}But the share market, in contrast, judged Qantas and Joyce the winners, driving the airline's shares up as much as 7.4%. The stock closed up 4.3% at A$1.61.
The tribunal ruling, handed down on Monday morning, gives both sides 21 days to settle the dispute or submit to binding arbitration — an expedited process likely to favour Qantas in its battle with unions to cut costs and base more operations in Asia, a labour-law expert said.