Australia court ends Qantas strike

The arbitration court heard more than 14 hours of testimony from the airline,the Australian government and unions after the government called the emergency hearing. Workers have held rolling strikes and refused overtime work for weeks out of worry that some of Qantas 35,000 jobs would be moved overseas in a restructing plan.

The unions wanted a temporary suspension of the employee lockout,but the airline said the strikes had been too devastating and it needed certainty to continue operating.

Tribunal President Geoffrey Giudice said the panel decided a temporary suspension would still risk Qantas grounding its fleet in the future and would not protect the tourism and aviation industry from damage.

Qantas is the largest of Australias four national domestic airlines,and the grounding affected 108 planes in 22 countries.

About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily,and would-be fliers this weekend were stuck at home,hotels,airports or even had to suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations. More than 60 flights were in the air at the time but flew to their destinations,and Qantas was paying for passengers to book other flights.

The airline infuriated unions in August when it said it would improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based airline. The five-year restructure plan will cost 1,000 jobs.