Bitter dispute: Qantas action strands C’wealth leaders

Travellers in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong were fuming as their travel plans were derailed.

PERTH:

Australian airline Qantas left tens of thousands of passengers and nearly 20 world leaders in a lurch on Saturday after it grounded its entire fleet due to an bitter dispute with airline unions.

Travellers in Australia and at regional hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong were fuming as their travel plans were derailed and they were left without luggage and scrambling to book other flights. Qantas’ decision comes at an inopportune time – the west Australian city of Perth is hosting the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Perth and 17 heads of government could be marooned in the remote city.

This weekend is also one of the Australia’s busiest travel weekends, with tens of thousands making their way to the Melbourne Cup horse race on Tuesday, dubbed “the race that stops the nation.”

Horse-racing gamblers returning from the country’s second biggest horse-racing event, Darby Day in Melbourne, were also met with the news that their flights were cancelled. In Parish meanwhile Air France expects to cancel about 200 flights on Sunday as a result of a five-day cabin crew strike over employment terms that began on Saturday in the middle of a holiday period.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2011.