ONE day after it grounded its domestic and international operations, Qantas Airways resumed its Manila flights on Monday after the Australian government’s labor board ordered it to end a dispute with its unions. Qantas’s Manila’s Flight QF 20 bound for Sydney, scheduled to leave at 6:20 p. m. on Monday, was fully booked.
“The airplane has a full capacity of 230 passengers, and it is fully booked, although we have yet to see the final tally once we closed the ticket counter, said a Qantas employee who refused to be named as she is not allowed to speak on such matters. She said the A330 aircraft arrived on Saturday and remained at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 tarmac.
Many of the passengers interviewed by the BusinessMirror were not aware that Qantas had grounded all its flights worldwide.
“No, we are not aware that Qantas had grounded its flights,” said Michael Weibel, who, along with wife Anne, had been visiting the country’s tourist spots for almost a month.
He said they had visited Romblon, Boracay, Palawan and several other places, and enjoyed the scenery.
“We had gone to many places, but we were not able to see any big fish,” he said, noting that fishermen in the provinces who were coming home from the sea after a night of fishing sometimes come home empty-handed.
“I think there is so much illegal fishing going on,” he said.
Mark Bernardo, a bartender for a cruise ship, said he came home to spend a monthlong vacation and was not even aware the airline had gone on strike for one day without any flight.
“I am lucky,” he said, saying he was flying to Sydney to join his ship, the Sun Princess, which travels to Australia and New Zealand on 13-day or 25-day cruises.
Qantas flies four times a week from Manila to Sydney and Brisbane, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, which explains why none of Monday’s passengers was affected by the flight cancellations.
“Qantas can confirm that all domestic and international services have resumed from mid-afternoon on Monday October 31,” the airline’s web site said. “We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and stress our customers have faced over the past days and months.”
The first planes to depart were an international flight from Sydney to Jakarta and a domestic route from Melbourne to Sydney.
Some 100,000 passengers were affected by the groundings, said Kira Reed, an airline representative.
