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Sydney - Australia's Qantas was set to resume passenger flights on Monday, after mediators ordered an end to a destructive industrial dispute that grounded its fleet and sparked passenger and political fury.
A Qantas A380 superjumbo left Sydney without passengers in preparation for the resumption of normal operations, and Australia's air safety regulator said it had given the all-clear for the airline to restart commercial services.
Around 70 000 passengers were stranded in 22 cities worldwide following Saturday's shock decision by Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce to ground all flights, dramatically escalating a long-running feud with airline unions.
Investors hailed the government mediator's order to resume services and put an end to months of strikes and industrial action by baggage handlers, engineers and pilots, sending the airline's share price soaring 5%.
"The clouds are gone, people can now move with confidence with Qantas," Joyce told reporters.
He vowed "a safe and phased approach" involving limited services on Monday leading to a full resumption of the airline's disrupted schedule by Tuesday.
"We will be doing all that we can to put things right," he said, playing down any long-term damage to the "Flying Kangaroo" brand and vowing to press ahead with an Asia-focused restructuring that has infuriated the unions.
But anger among passengers left adrift by Joyce's weekend decision remained strong.
Newlyweds Ciaran and Patricia, 33 and 34 respectively, were en route to Australia from Ireland for their honeymoon but were stuck at Hong Kong airport with no news of when they might be able to travel.
"This is a disaster. We are angry, big time. We had to throw all our plans out the window," Ciaran said, declining to give his surname.
"I don't think we will fly Qantas again. They should have given us more help with the arrangements," he said.
The iconic 90-year-old flag carrier, the world's 10th largest airline by traffic, stunned the nation when it announced Saturday its shock decision to ground all aircraft in a bid to end the acrimonious labour row.
In a desperate bid to limit economic damage, Prime Minister Julia Gillard took the rare step of asking the industrial regulator to step in to end the action.
Fair Work Australia ordered a complete end to industrial action by both sides in the early hours of Monday following a marathon hearing.
It could have opted to suspend strike action for as long as 120 days so talks could take place, a move favoured by unions, but instead came down in favour of Qantas which wanted permanent termination.
The move leaves Qantas and the three unions, locked in dispute over pay and Qantas's plans to refocus its international business on Asia, 21 days to hammer out their differences or face a compulsory arbitration decision.
Joyce welcomed the decision, but defended his action, saying he had no choice after a union leader threatened rolling strikes for a year. Qantas says industrial action has already cost it Aus$15m per week.
"The important thing is that all industrial action is now over and we have certainty - certainty for our employees, certainty for our customers, certainty for our shareholders," he said.
Unions were disappointed. Transport Workers Union secretary Tony Sheldon said his union would abide by the Fair Work decision but was considering appealing it.
"If the company negotiates in good faith, which is what we're expecting the company to do, the next 21 days we will not be taking industrial action," he said.
Joyce said he did not believe the grounding would have a lasting impact on Qantas's brand or spark a long-term flight of its passengers to other airlines.
"I have every confidence that we will recover back to a 65% domestic market share and recover internationally," he said.
But Gillard and her ministers were angry that Qantas had been grounded with virtually no notice on a busy weekend ahead of the Melbourne Cup horse race and while Australia was hosting the 54-nation Commonwealth summit.
"I believe that that action by Qantas was an extreme action to take. It has caused chaos for the travelling public and Qantas had other options available at its disposal," the prime minister said.
Tourism chiefs are anxious about the long-term impact on Australia's image, and Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Qantas grounding "came as a bolt out of the blue".
