London rally to test Qantas's plea to customers

QANTAS'S push to win customers will be tested this week, when union leader protest at the Australian High Commission in London.

QANTAS'S aggressive marketing push to win back disaffected customers will be tested again this week, when the airline's staff and aviation union leaders from around the world hold a protest at the Australian High Commission in London.

The protest, to be held on Wednesday, is organised by the International Transport Workers Federation, and comes as Qantas offers cut-price fares to the US and Britain, with full-page newspaper ads at the weekend promising customers they could "book with confidence and certainty".

The reduced economy airfares include a return flight from Los Angeles to Sydney from $1349, and a return flight from Sydney to London from $1799.

However, with Qantas pilots last week becoming the first union to launch legal action against the decision by Fair Work Australia to terminate industrial action at the airline, it remains to be seen whether the tens of thousands of passengers hit by the Qantas grounding will be satisfied with the repeated pledges of certainty from the airline's management.

Assistant Federal Treasurer Bill Shorten said yesterday the Qantas dispute was an example of bad business leadership. Speaking on Sky News' Australian Agenda, Mr Shorten called for a reframing of the industrial relations debate to examine good business leadership rather than putting the focus on workplace laws.

"If we want to analyse the Qantas dispute . . . that was a failure of leadership within Qantas in the years leading up to the grounding of the airline to be able to convince its workforce about workplace change," Mr Shorten said. "Too much of the political debate about industrial relations . . . comes down to a debate about what is the right regulation."

Meanwhile Australians will get their first glimpse of Boeing's long-delayed 787 Dreamliner on Wednesday, when it arrives in Sydney to coincide with Qantas's 91st anniversary.

Additional reporting: AAP