Qantas passengers face delays

Qantas passengers, including those travelling to the Commonwealth Games, could be hit by delays when maintenance workers begin industrial action tomorrow over a plan to send jobs offshore.

Unions said yesterday there were no guarantees the action would not disrupt travel to the Melbourne Games. They also refused to rule out escalating their campaign in their fight to extract a promise from Qantas to keep maintenance jobs in Australia.

Qantas has threatened to shift about 2500 maintenance jobs offshore if it cannot get cost cuts which it says are needed to make it competitive against specialist maintenance companies.