oneworld: Qantas suspends all flights worldwide

Regional services operated by QantasLink and flights between Australia and New Zealand operated by Jetconnect, both of which are also part of oneworld, continue to operate normally, as do services by the Qantas group's other airline, Jetstar, which is not part of oneworld. Flights with Qantas' QF prefix but operated by its oneworld partners and other airlines under code-sharing agreements are also unaffected.

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.

It is advising customers on all cancelled flights not to travel to the airport and asking only those due to travel within the next 24 hours to call its contact centres or local Qantas office: "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".

Customers booked on flights in the next few days or weeks are asked to monitor qantas.com.au for latest advice.

Qantas said: "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."

For Qantas' full advice to customers and its policies for passengers affected by its grounding, see http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/disruptions/global/en or follow Qantas on Facebook or Twitter.

The airline has taken this step in response to the continuing industrial action by the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), the Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU).