Qantas grounds entire worldwide fleet
Australian airline cancels all flights over protracted industrial dispute that will affect thousands of passengers across the world
The Australian airline, Qantas, has grounded its entire fleet because of ongoing industrial action.
Domestic and international flights stopped flying as of 5pm Sydney time (7am GMT).
Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce said the union's demands were unreasonable and he was left with no other option.
"This course of action has been forced on us because of the damage done by three unions," he said.
"I want to say how sorry I am that this course of action has become necessary."
Grounding the fleet will cost Qantas $A20m a day.
Qantas has been in dispute with three unions over pay and conditions. The unions, representing engineers, ground, baggage and catering staff and long haul pilots have been holding industrial action, including rolling strikes over the past few weeks.
On Friday 10,000 Qantas customers were affected by the dispute.
It's costing the airline $A15m a week. Flights on the airline's most lucrative sector along Australia's east coast are down 25% on the same time last year.
As of 8pm on Monday night local Sydney time, all the workers covered by the unions involved will be locked out for "as long as it takes" said Joyce.
"They (the unions) will have to decide how badly they want to damage Qantas", said Joyce.
Flights in the air at the time of the announcement will continue to their destinations but no further flights will take off.
Joyce said Qantas would assist stranded passengers with accommodation and try to get them onto other airlines to finish their journeys.
Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent at Orient Aviation magazine, said grounding the fleet would have an "incredible economic impact".
"It's not just the fact that Qantas has been grounded - this will hit tourism, trade and business," he said.
"The ramifications are quite incredible and the government can't sta! nd by an d allow this to happen."
Within an hour of the Qantas CEO's announcement, the government applied for an emergency meeting at Fair Work Australia to try to resolve the dispute.
Qantas is the world's second oldest airline and was founded in outback Queensland in 1920. Domestically in Australia it operates around 5,500 flights a week, including its subsidiaries. Internationally Qantas and Jetstar operate around 1000 flights each week.
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