On Monday Australia's Qantas Airways called off 6 flights and said that it might make use of strike-breakers after engineers went on a two day strike.

ALAEA (Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association) members walked off the work in three states, disturbing services in Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne, over the carrier's refusal to give a wage rise of five per cent for 1,500 engineers. The company is offering three per cent.

Kevin Brown, Qantas Executive General Manager for People, said, "I don't think that there is a settlement at hand here. Each time we go to meet the ALAEA they put on strike action, and we've been very clear about this, we're not going to meet with a gun to our head".

The carrier is at the sharp edge of a problem facing a number of Australian companies: with inflation at just above 4 per cent, employees are asking for huge pay rises at a time when demand is declining and employers are finding ways to reduce their costs. And, it also has to run with record high levels of fuel prices.

It said that another eighteen flights would be called off on Tuesday as the problem continued.

Brown said that there was still a long distance that both sides needed to cover to reach talks and the carrier could take services of contract engineers.

He said that the carrier had a whole range of contingencies to cope with the disruption caused due to strike.