Despite announcement by Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce that its domestic operations is back to pre-strike level, the air carrier would have to wait for at least six more months before its industrial row with unions would be solved.

The reason behind the long delay is that three commissioners from Fair Work Australia (FWA) who would hear the dispute with the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) have scheduled the hearings on June 5 to 8 in Sydney and June 12 to 15 in Melbourne.

Prior to those hearings, Qantas would need to submit witness statements and expert evidence to the FWA by March 19 and the AIPA by April 30.

The hearing was initially scheduled on May, but moved a few weeks later due to the complex nature of the case. Besides the FWA hearing, the pilots' union had also challenged in a federal court the termination by FWA of its protected industrial action against Qantas.

Two other disputes that involve licenced aircraft engineers and ground crew are expected to end before the pilots' case. The dispute with the Transport Workers Union, which represents baggage handlers, is slated to be heard by a full FWA bench in late March and that of aircraft engineers is scheduled on Monday.

Mr Joyce told shareholders on Monday that Qantas, despite the opposition of unions, is determined to go ahead with its planned premium Asia-based carrier, with Malaysia as the number one preferred location, followed by Singapore.

"We want to capture those premium customers who have been frustrated with our lack of frequencies and limited flight-tome options into Asia, and do this through leveraging our aviation skill base without huge capital risk," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Mr Joyce.

He said that in five years, Qantas plans to have a hub in southeast Asia, considered the fasted growing aviation region in the world, by feeding traffic into its Qantas and Jetstar networks.

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