Passengers in Sydney board their flights on Monday as Australia's Qantas Airways resumes operations two days after grounding its entire fleet.
But back at the terminal, there was still a huge backlog of stranded passengers.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED STRANDED PASSENGER:
"It's been absolutely ridiculous. We've all gotten stranded. We haven't been able to get home."
Around 70,000 passengers had their journeys disrupted when the grounding was announced on Saturday, with at least seven flights airborne or in Singapore at the time.
Some passengers stranded in Singapore felt they had been treated well.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN PASSENGER, CAROL:
"We've been absolutely fine. They've been absolutely fantastic to us. They've put us in a lovely hotel. Didn't keep us as well-informed as we would like, but as long as we chased the man we were okay. Brought us here this morning and we are off now, we have been treated well, lovely hotel, lovely food. "
The drastic move to ground the fleet was in response to a standoff with Qantas employees over pay, working conditions and plans to move some operations outside Australia.
The airline's Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce stood by his decision.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF QANTAS, ALAN JOYCE:
"So, the only option that we had in response to the union action, and I have to say, the union action, as we remember, caused 70,000 passengers to be disrupted, was costing us $15 million a week, cost us $68 million to date, and resulted in hundreds of flights being cancelled. The only response we had to that action was to take our own action, which was a lock-out."
The Secretary of the Transport Workers Union said they are "determined to make sure that Australian jobs are kept within this country."
Nick Rowlands, Reuters
