[1]Australia's Qantas was preparing to return to the air for the first time in two days today, after an industrial tribunal ordered it and unions to halt a bitter row that grounded all its planes.
The airline will launch its first passenger flight at 2:00pm (local time), after an unprecedented 44-hour grounding, chief executive Alan Joyce said, 44 hours after it grounded its entire fleet and locked out union staff.
The iconic 90-year-old flag carrier, which stunned the nation and infuriated the government when it announced its shock action Saturday, will not be able to return to normal service until tomorrow at the earliest, Joyce said.
"(We'll have) our first commercial flight with passengers on them by two o'clock this afternoon and the schedule will ramp up and hopefully we will be back to a full schedule tomorrow," he told public broadcaster ABC.
"I know they (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority) are giving it a top priority," Joyce said of the airline's safety case pending approval by the flight safety watchdog. The resumption of flights was ordered by industrial regulator Fair Work Australia, which after a marathon hearing ordered a complete end to the polarising dispute between Qantas and unions.
Justice Geoffrey Giudice, part of the industrial umpire panel, said the decision allowed for further negotiations between Qantas and unions over the next 21 days to try and hammer out their differences.
Fair Work Australia could have opted to suspend strike action for as long as 120 days so talks could take place, a move favoured by unions, but instead came down in favour of Qantas who wanted permanent termination.
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