Twin carrier strikes spell chaos for travellers

Strikes at two major airlines on opposite sides of the world have thrown travel plans of thousands of passengers into chaos. Australian flag carrier Qantas grounded its entire fleet indefinitely Saturday in an escalating industrial dispute, locking out employees involved in industrial action without pay. Chief executive Alan Joyce said that the lock-out would continue for "as long as it takes to reach a conclusion". Meanwhile, Air France cancelled about one in five flights and warned of wider disruption as a five-day strike by flight attendants over employment terms began on Saturday, in the middle of a busy holiday weekend. A spokeswoman for the airline said it aimed to ensure 80 per cent of some 1,000 daily flights, short- and long-haul, at the two major Paris airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle, went ahead — but a flight to Abu Dhabi yesterday was cancelled, and the airline said on its website that its flight to Paris today would also be affected. Qantas expects to lose $20 million (Dh73.56 million) per day through the action, and the move has sparked a rare intervention by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who asked the industrial regulator to terminate the strike action because of the dangers it was now posing to the national economy. Unions have been protesting against pay and restructuring plans that would see 1,000 jobs axed and the establishment of two new airlines focused on Asia. Unions fear many jobs will be outsourced to Asia. In a statement posted on Air France's website, the carrier said that it had cancelled 10 long-haul flights to destinations such as New York, Tokyo, Montreal, Abu Dhabi as well as cities in West Africa. "We do not rule out other cancellations and delays," the website advisory stated.