Qantas have just announced at a press conference that they will ground their whole fleet of aircraft including cancellations of all domestic and overseas flights. The announcement comes during an ongoing battle with a number of unions who Qantas believe are making unreasonable demands. The decision will cause mayhem in airports across Australia and the world, affecting a number of touring bands with shows planned in Australia this weekend. Managers will be scrambling hard now to reschedule flights and there is the possibility a number of shows around the country will be cancelled.
Information Regarding The Grounding of The Qantas Fleet & Flight Cancellations
A number of bands have already tweeted about what effect the suspension of flights will have on their shows. We’ll keep you updated if news of cancellations come in.
@1songday
I AM STUCK IN ROCKHAMPTON” – our best wishes go out to all the bands and DJs stranded thanks to the Qantas grounding.
@EFM_Worldwide
Efm oz is busy re-booking our bands onto other airlines for their tours as the news just hit that Qantas are grounding their entire fleet!
@ihearmotion
Australia needs more airlines. Simple as that. Ridiculous. Waste my Sat night trying to find alternative ways for band to get home
@Illdrinn
On the plus side it looks like only one member of the band will be stranded by the Qantas grounding
Information For Qantas Customers
Qantas will stop all domestic and international flights from 5pm (AEDT) on Saturday 29 October until further notice. This is in response to the damaging industrial action by three unions – the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), the Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
QantasLink, Jetstar, Jetconnect services, and our freight services (Express Freighters Australia and Atlas) will continue to operate as normal.
Qantas is providing a full refund for any flights cancelled due to the industrial action. Customers can also rebook their flights for a later date.
Customers are advised not to travel to the airport unless they are travelling on a QantasLink , Jetstar or Jet Connect flight and are urged to reconsider any non-urgent travel and defer their travel plans wherever possible.
Due to the significant nature of this disruption and the uncertainty as to how long the grounding will last, we are only able to manage customer bookings on a day-by-day basis.
Only customers travelling within the next 24 hours should call our Contact Centres on 13 13 13 to discuss their alternatives.
If you are travelling in the next few days/weeks, please monitor the situation on qantas.com. We recommend that you do not change your booking until closer to the date of departure.
We understand that this will have a significant impact on our customers and apologise for the inconvenience that the damaging union action has caused. We thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Customer Support for customers flying on Saturday 29 October 2011
Domestic customers:
If you are away from home and between flights today, Qantas will arrange accommodation, meals and transfers for you.
If you are away from home and beginning your journey today, unfortunately you will need to source your own accommodation; we will reimburse you for reasonable out of pocket expenses including accommodation, transfers, meals and incidentals up to a total value of AUD 350 per person per day. A limit of AUD 250 per night for accommodation and AUD 100 for incidentals (meals and phone calls) per person per day applies.
International customers
Qantas will arrange accommodation, meals and transfers for you.
Full details of how to claim your reimbursement, including an online claim form are available on www.qantas.com. Please ensure you keep all receipts in order to make your claim..
Qantas is requesting that only passengers within the next 24 hours call its contact centres: 13 13 13 from within Australia.
