Qantas passengers warned of more delays

More than 10,000 Qantas passengers are expected to be hit by further flight delays, as negotiations between the airline and ground staff continue to break down. File photo

More than 10,000 Qantas passengers are expected to be hit by further flight delays, as negotiations between the airline and ground staff continue to break down.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents baggage handlers, catering workers and ground staff, announced on Wednesday that it would hold meetings at airports around Australia tomorrow for one hour.

It warned that further industrial action was likely to follow.

"They will not employ another person in this country under Qantas and they will be outsourcing work where ever they can,'' TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

"I expect that there will be an increasing expansion of industrial action (after Friday's meetings) because there is no other alternative that the company has left us with.''

The TWU previously called off nationwide industrial action scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Qantas said the action on Friday comes after the union rejected the airline's new offer over pay and conditions for about 3800 staff.

The one-hour meetings are expected to cause 66 flights to be delayed by up to 70 minutes and will affect 10,100 passengers, Qantas says.

The airline is finalising a new schedule and will contact passengers who face significant delays, it says.

"We have made the union our best offer but they are refusing to agree to it,'' Qantas group executive operations officer Lyell Strambi said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We have made it clear that industrial action will not have any bearing on the outcome of negotiations.''

The comments come as the beleaguered airline says it was forced to ground another Boeing 767 due to concerns about the reliability of the fleet.

Four Boeing 767s and three Boeing 737s are now out of the skies, with the first grounding occurring two weeks ago.

Mr Strambi said the fleet had been affected by continued industrial action by the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA).

"The sole reason that we grounded these aircraft when we did and reduced our number of daily flights was due to the backlog of maintenance which was causing reliability issues on our fleet,'' he said in a statement yesterday.

But ALAEA secretary Steve Purvinas rejected the claims, saying engineers had not taken any industrial action in the past week, which was sufficient time to restore the fleet.

He said the airline simply had too many aircraft.

"I'm disappointed that this management can't just be honest about what's going on here,'' Mr Purvinas told AAP.

"They're trying to blame other people for their own woes.''

Meanwhile, Qantas said it would be meeting with the Australian and International Pilots Association for further talks before Fair Work Australia on Friday.

- AAP