Australian airline Qantas has said it will hand out 100,000 free air tickets in an attempt to win back passengers after the two-day grounding of its global fleet.
Some 70,000 travellers were stranded in 22 cities across the world when Qantas CEO Alan Joyce grounded the airline last Saturday to force an end to months of strike action by pilots, engineers and ground staff.
The Australian government stepped in to prevent huge damage to the Australian economy by forcing an end to all industrial action at the airline.
The firm's woes deepened on Friday when an engine problem saw a Qantas A380 diverted to Dubai.
Mr Joyce kicked off a huge public relations offensive today with the Aus$20m (€15m) offer of a free return flight within Australia or between it and New Zealand for every customer stranded by last weekend's chaos.
"This ticket offer is one of a range of initiatives we will be launching as a way of saying sorry as we move forward into this period of stability," he said.
Mr Joyce said further announcements would soon be made about compensating overseas-based customers and its 8m frequent flyers.
Qantas has already promised to refund all "reasonable losses" for passengers affected by the drama.
The pilots' union, which claims the airline is losing a "pilot a day" to rivals such as Emirates, said it would have been "a lot cheaper for them to work with their workforce".
Tony Sheldon, head of the ground staff union, said it was mulling a court challenge to the strike ban this week, pending legal advice.
Mr Joyce evoked fury with his snap decision to shut down Qantas last weekend following several months of industrial action over the airline's plans to restructure its international business in Asia.
Staff want guarantees on job security, wages and conditions that Qantas rejects as unreasonable.
The once state-owned airline has warned that its future is at stake amid frenzied competition in the region.
