Qantas will give away 100,000 air tickets worth AU$20 million as its way of saying "sorry" to passengers it stranded by grounding its fleet last week.

The EPMU says the Qantas lockout has affected the handling of baggage from Air NZ flights into Australia.

Australian unions have condemned Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's decision to ground the airline's entire fleet.

Qantas has grounded its entire domestic and international fleets in an escalation of industrial action.

Thousands of Qantas passengers are expected to face flight cancellations and delays today, even though a union has called off a nationwide strike.

Qantas Airways has more than doubled full year net profit but says the general operating environment is challenging and extremely volatile.

At the height of the aviation chaos caused by the ash cloud, I commented to my wife, "It's going to be interesting to see the outcome of this ... "