Qantas Airways has reinstated dozens of flights it had planned to cancel on 13 May, after its engineers decided to hold off on industrial action.
The Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association had initially informed the airline that its 1,600 members would stop work from 08:00 to 09:00 on 13 May over a new agreement on pay and working conditions. Qantas said the action would lead to 31 cancelled flights and 46 delayed flights.
"Taking action this Friday would not win us too many friends with the public and I am concerned that we may in some way be blamed for disruptions that are not of our own doing. For this reason we have decided to call off the 1h Friday stoppage," says the association's federal secretary Steve Purvinas.
The association had earlier said it also planned to take industrial action on 16-17 May, but Purvinas did not indicate if this will still go ahead.
Qantas' group executive operations Lyell Strambi said: "If the union is serious about not disrupting the airline's operations and passengers, I call on the union to cancel the strike action planned for Monday and Tuesday next week."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
