Qantas passengers face their third day this week of severe disruptions to their holiday and business travel plans with the strike on Friday by licensed engineers’ union to affect more than 7,600 passengers from 17 flight cancellations and 32 flight delays.

Some rugby fans travelling from Sydney to New Zealand for the World Cup semi-final will face delays of more than three hours.

The strike, planned from 4 to 8 p.m. in Sydney, comes after the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association on Monday cancelled a strike only hours before it was to commence and causing chaos to the travel plans of 11,000 people.

The strikes today from the Transport Workers Union and the strike tomorrow from the ALAEA will bring the total number of passengers affected since unions started action to around 60,000.

Qantas Group Executive Government and Corporate Affairs Olivia Wirth said the strike is due to an ongoing dispute over pay and the union’s attempt to run the airline.

"It is clear by the timing of these strikes that they are trying to cause maximum damage to Qantas and our passengers,” Wirth said.

“We are extremely disappointed with the action being taken by this union. It is the same union that warned customers not to fly with Qantas before Christmas, trying to destroy the business that employs its members.

“We now have the pilots' union, the licensed aircraft maintenance engineers union and the Transport Workers’ Union all ramping up their coordinated industrial campaign against Qantas."

Qantas to Ground Flights, Government to Intervene

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the industrial action was unsustainable for the company, and warned it will ground aircraft and cut around 100 domestic flights a week.

“Because of the bans that are existing at the moment, we've had to ground these five aircraft next week.

“If the bans continue, then more aircraft will have to be grounded into the future,” Joyce said in Sydney.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister and former ACTU boss Martin Ferguson warned the government could intervene to end the bitter dispute, which he said was hurting the tourism industry.

"There are options for the government to actually require the parties to resolve these issues under the umbrella of the Fair Work Australia Act," Ferguson said.

He added, "You can have a dispute with employers, but there is a responsibility on trade union leaders to never set out to damage Australian industry, not only Qantas but in doing so many struggling small and medium sized Australian tourism businesses."