Although Qantas is back in the air following the intervention by Fair Work Australia (FWA) over the industrial dispute, Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce did not escape recrimination for his unilateral decision to ground the planes and crew on Saturday.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard described Mr Joyce's decision as extreme and debunked his claim that he had no other course of action available.

"It had other options open to it on Saturday, including taking the same sort of application that the government took to Fair Work Australia," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ms Gillard.

The prime minister said she called the parties involved and expressed hope that they will resolve their differences in the next 21 days.

Mr Joyce, who is under fire not only because of his action which stranded 70,000 passengers but also over his $5 million pay package while haggling union members' salary increases, said he did not consider bringing the problem with FWA because he thought the agency would not succeed in solving the labor row.

He insisted that Qantas had made known to the government of the air carrier's plan to ground its jets, however, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese disputed Mr Joyce's claim.

"At no stage did Qantas, Mr Joyce or anyone else raise with me the possibility of a lockout of the Qantas workforce until we had that conversation that afternoon," Mr Albanese said.

After two hearings, TWA found that the Qantas decision to lock out workers and ground its planes threatened significant damage to Australia's tourism and aviation but said the unions' strike was unlikely to have a significant impact on the two sectors.

Qantas advised passengers on its Web site that domestic services are expected to return to normal by the start of Tuesday, but international services may return to normal only later in the day.

Greens MP Adam Bandt pointed out that a tribunal like FWA may not be the best agency to handle matters like business offshoring. He suggested that government must now shift gears and come out with a detailed plan that would address employees' concern about job security.

"The question of how our national carrier deals with heavily subsided competitors and what kinds of supports we want to offer local industry are too big to be left to the negotiating parties alone and require the government to take a stand," Mr Bandt wrote in Drum TV.

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