(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 03, 2011 ) Melbourne, Australia -- Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has made the dramatic move to ground the entire Qantas international and domestic fleet immediately placing the entire $94 billion tourism industry on the chopping block.

PR consultant Daniel Johnshon said, "The biggest item of concern for travel affiliate websites like Travel Network is that action of Qantas grounding all domestic and international flights has potentially killed the Australian tourism market."

Johnshon noted the big concern for those in the online travel industry is how much this sudden announcement will immediately impact domestic and international travel and refunds may mean large losses incurred leading upto Christmas.

He said "the sudden impact will cause long term trust problems for consumers considering flying Qantas and could further damage an already weak travel industry even if the resolution is reached quickly."

The impact on the industry is so great that CEO John Lee of Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) has called on the government to intervene immediately with Qantas to overturn the grounding.

The sudden move has apparently, according to Mr Joyce, the full support of the board of directors, but aviation experts have stated this action has likely done the brand more damage to the Qantas brand than can be repaired. The end result is that the federal government of Australia has had no option but to step in and resolve the issue before it further impacts the Australian aviation sector and destroys the tourism industry.

The CEO of Qantas has said that Qantas staff would not be required to show up for work and will no longer be paid starting monday. This is move that impacts passengers globally and there will be likely a large spike in anger as travellers are left stranded at airports around the world, with flights on the one world alliance due to be impacted immediately.

The Qantas announcement of the grounding have starting impacting travellers on international flights from cities as far as Los Angeles and London.

Dick Smith, founder of Dick Smith Electronics, has placed blame on the overseas airlines who use cheaper labour but also Australians who are only interested in a cheap holiday and have abandoned Qantas long before the planes were grounded.

A number of flights that were due to take off have been grounded with passengers asked to disembark before leaving passengers stranded in airports. For those looking to travel the only options are Jetstar or Vigin Australia and are currently being swamped by passengers panicking and will impact the entire Australian travel network.

A number of media commentators and federal opposition party members has implied the Qantas issue is big enough that it may even lead to a political change with most seeing the labour party being put in the firing line due to the union strikes.

Virgin Australia has offered Qantas passengers who are currently stranded at a port away from home and hold a Qantas ticket to return home within the next 5 days, these Qantas travellers may be eligible for a “Stranded Passenger” recovery fare with Virgin Australia, Pacific Blue or Polynesian Blue. But this offer excludes international routes not operated by Qantas who may have to depend on the One World Alliance.

For passengers wanting to call Australia home... looks like they will need to be flying on a different airline until further notice. As Qantas has left passengers stranded Virgin Australia has offered to assist passengers and can be available via their Guest Contact Centre on 13 67 89.

Press Release Courtesy of Online PR Media: http://bit.ly/uDDYFh

Contact Information:
Travel Network
Daniel Johnshon
Tel: +61 3 9005 8569
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