Sydney - Australia's Qantas Airways warned domestic and international passengers Sunday of cancelled flights and long delays as engineers prepared to stop work to press for higher pay.
Stop-work meetings lasting four hours in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will force delays to five international flights Monday and the cancellation of 31 domestic flights.
"We apologise to all of our customers who face delays and cancellations on Monday," Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said. "The union is holding Qantas passengers to ransom."
As well as more money, the engineers are demanding that heavy maintenance on new aircraft be done in Australia rather than contracted out abroad.
Industrial action affecting Qantas is into its sixth week.