The ongoing labor dispute of Qantas with unions continues to take its toll on the air carrier's operations as it canceled 16 flights on Monday and ground five planes.

The canceled flights were all domestic routes. If thousands of Qantas passengers' travel plans had been affected by the labor row, more inconvenience are on the way as Qantas said it expects to cancel 400 flights over the next month due to the job walk-offs by the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA).

The five jets were not allowed to fly as part of the maintenance backlog created by the engineers' strike. It adds to other operations problems encountered by Qantas including an engine trouble that caused a plane bound for Sydney to return to Bangkok and the air carrier losing track of an unaccompanied child.

Passengers aboard the Sydney-bound Qantas jet heard a bang and felt a vibration, forcing the pilot to shut down one of the engineers and to return the plane to Bangkok on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Qantas misplaced the paperwork for the flight of an 11-year old unaccompanied boy, which forced the minor to wander around Hobart Airport on his own on the night of Sept. 28 after he got off from a flight from Melbourne. Qantas explained the problem to that night being a particularly busy one as Hobart Airport's arrival area was in turmoil due to storms in Melbourne, which caused flight delays, passenger disruption and lost baggage.

Pilots are ruling out strikes as their option to push for higher wages and better work conditions, but have other industrial actions as their options, including work stoppages, ban on overtime and work to rule, Australian and International Pilots' Association (AIPA) Vice President Captain Richard Woodward said.

AIPA criticised Qantas for walking away during Friday's conciliation talks before Fair Work Australia.

"(Qantas) are clearly committed to aggravating and exacerbating this dispute and Australians deserve to know why," AIPA President Barry Jackson said in a statement.

"We are very much committed to these negotiations, however this one claim makes it very difficult for negotiations to make any headway and make any progress," Qantas group executive Olivia Wirth said in a statement.

Ms Wirth pointed out that AIPA pushed for Qantas to pay Jetstar and Jetconnect pilots that same wages and conditions as Qantas aviators.

"If Qantas were to agree to this claim, it would drive up airfares for our customers and would also risk the jobs of all other employees within Qantas," Ms Wirth added.

Aircraft engineers have placed on hold any further industrial action until the Qantas yearly general meeting on Oct. 28.

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