Less than 48 hours after Qantas CEO Alan Joyce grounded the airline on October 29, Qantas hopes to resume services this afternoon following a ruling by the Fair Work Australia authority late last night that all industrial action by unions and the planned lockout by the airline were to be terminated.
Speaking to media this morning, Joyce said the airline was working with CASA to resume services, and had rostered extra staff and would add supplementary domestic and international services today in an effort to clear the passenger backlog.
Joyce said that he had received a large number of emails and messages and support from corporate customers and passengers alike since taking the “courageous” action. He said he regretted any “inconvenience and stress caused by the action,” and assured customer that they can “deal with confidence with the airline going forward.” He added that he was proud of the airline’s staff and the way they had done an “exceptional job” in the “difficult period” of the last couple of days.
He said the airline would now enter a “period of recovery” while it ramped back up to full operations, which he expects to achieve in the next couple of days. “Operations will resume progressively from this afternoon. Our focus is bringing our schedule back to normal as soon as possible.”
Joyce’s desire to return to service safely was echoed by CASA in a tweet this morning which read, “CASA now working on Qantas safety case for resumption of flights. Will be completed as quickly as possible, while ensuring safety.”
“The focus now is on serving our customers, and to build a stronger Qantas for our shareholders,” Joyce said, adding that the customers and staff were the “winners” out of the past few days.
