QANTAS aircraft engineers have called off their strike

QANTAS aircraft engineers have called off their strike tomorrow, which was set to force the cancellation of 31 flights and delay some 2500 passengers.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the engineers have cancelled the planned one hour stop work over safety concerns about the fleet.

The move follows a warning from the airline that it had been forced to cancel 31 flights affecting around 2500 passengers and delay another 46 flights because of the 8am to 9am stopwork.

The Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association had instructed around 1600 members to walk off the job between 8am-9am tomorrow as part of industrial action for a new agreement on pay and conditions.

Qantas Group Executive Operations Lyell Strambi said the work stoppages at airports and maintenance facilities around Australia would mainly impact Qantas domestic services with only a small number of delays to international services.

"Our priority is to the Australian travelling public but even with contingency plans the union will cause disruptions to our passengers. It’s clear that the union leadership has constructed this industrial action to have the maximum impact on passengers,” Mr Strambi said.

"We are doing everything we possibly can to get passengers to their destinations including moving passengers on to later flights and upgrading services to larger, widebody aircraft.”

However the association has now called off the action, with a source citing “fears over safety” under the standby arrangements.

More details were being sought.

Meanwhile, the airline's pilots are threatening industrial action next week if there's no progress in negotiations on job security.

The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) says it has "drawn a line in the sand'' because Qantas management is not negotiating seriously.

It says if Qantas does not signal a change of intent by close of business on Thursday next week (May 19), the union will take the first steps toward protected industrial action.

"Qantas management has had our claims since October last year,'' APIA president Barry Jackson said.

"Since that time they have not given a single indication that they are willing to take our proposed job security provisions seriously.''

Captain Jackson said the job security provisions they were asking for do not mean being made un-sackable.

"What AIPA is asking for is very straightforward. If it's a Qantas flight it should be operated by a Qantas pilot. It's that simple.''

The association has not specified what kind of industrial action it is considering.

A spokesman for Qantas said the company had no immediate response to the pilots' threat of industrial action but would issue a statement later on Thursday.

Qantas has accused the ALAEA of sabotaging talks and misrepresenting claims for increased wages and conditions.

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