Sydney:
Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying on Monday after a government tribunal ordered the airline to lift its grounding of the entire fleet over the weekend, which stranded thousands around the world.
The decision grants 21 days for both sides to resolve their dispute and reach a binding agreement or face compulsory arbitration.
Qantas said that it would seek to get its domestic and international flights back in the air by midday on Monday in Sydney. As many as 70,000 passengers were stranded over two days.
Qantas's confrontation with its unions followed months of tension between them. The airline, one of the world's 10 largest, had been hit by a series of labor disputes in recent months as employees voiced concern about wage inequality and the moving of jobs out of Australia. Workers staged various actions that included brief strikes and the refusal to work overtime.
Despite a direct appeal by the embattled prime minister, Julia Gillard, to solve the matter swiftly, hundreds of flights were canceled over the weekend.
Ms. Gillard tried to seize some credit for the resolution in a blitz of media appearances Monday morning, as her opponents argued that she had failed to break the impasse herself because of her ties to the labor unions.
Qantas's chief executive, Alan Joyce, who faced sharp criticism over his decision to ground the fleet, struck a contrite tone as he promised to get its planes flying again. "I apologize to all Qantas passengers that have been impacted by the industrial action by unions over the past few months and in particular the past few days," he said in a statement after the ruling.
Qantas has had to reduce and reschedule flights for weeks because of the union actions. But the unions said they were the injured party and accused the company of planning to outsource the company's operations to Asia.
The grounding of the fleet cost the airline an estimated $21 million a day. Qantas said it had already been losing $16 million a week in revenue as a result of the job actions. Qantas employs about 35,000 people.
Qantas has several flights a day from Australia to the United States, including routes to New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Honolulu.