Strikes cost Qantas US$70 million

Months of rolling strikes have cost Australian flag carrier Qantas Aus$68 million ($70 million), far more than the damage wrought by the grounding of flights by recent volcanic ash clouds. In addition, the lingering uncertainty around the carrier's flight schedules is causing a revenue loss of Aus$15 million per week for the embattled airline, Qantas said during its annual general meeting in Sydney. Action by the pilots', engineers' and baggage handlers' unions was hurting Qantas and had affected 70,922 passengers, causing the cancellation of 129 flights and delays of 387 others, chief executive Alan Joyce said. "This drawn-out and coordinated industrial campaign by these three unions is now having a major impact on Qantas," Joyce said as baggage handlers launched a one-hour strike that Qantas said would hit 10,000 passengers. "Sixty-eight million (dollars) is a significant impact on the company and the costs will continue to rise," he said in a statement. "In comparison, the impact on Qantas from grounding aircraft during the recent volcanic ash cloud was Aus$49 million," he said, pledging to push ahead with a disputed new strategy that targets Asia as its key overseas market. The announcement was made as top management and angry workers were expected to face off in a heated atmosphere, with Qantas' future hanging in the balance. Current market volatility made the airline reluctant to provide much more guidance to the market. "The outlook for the remainder of first half 2011-12 remains volatile and given the uncertainty in global economic conditions, fuel prices, foreign exchange rates, and the industrial relations environment, as well as a major transformational change agenda underway, it is not possible to provide profit guidance at this time," Qantas said.