SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUSTRALIAN airline Qantas said on Wednesday it had to cancel dozens more flights following strikes by maintenance engineers earlier this week.

Qantas said a further 43 flights, mostly departing from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, would not take off on Wednesday and Thursday because of delays in routine maintenance triggered by the industrial action.

The carrier cancelled 35 domestic flights on Tuesday, the second and final day of the strike by engineers seeking a five percent pay rise.

'We have still got flow-on effects as a result of strikes on Monday and Tuesday, including a number of cancellations,' a Qantas spokesman told national news agency AAP.

'We're contacting all affected passengers and rebooking them on the next available flight.'

The strikes were triggered by demands from the carrier's 1,500 maintenance engineers for the pay increase. The airline has said it cannot afford the hike despite record profits, and has offered a three percent salary hike.

The workers' union, the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), said it has notified Qantas of a further four-hour strike on Friday.

'The last thing Qantas engineers want to do is inconvenience the travelling public, but it is unacceptable for a company that is making record profits to expect these hardworking, highly skilled engineers to take a real pay cut,' the union's president Paul Cousins said.

In February, Qantas said net profit for the half year to December more than doubled to A$617.6 million (S$808.5 million) and that it expected full year profit growth of at least 40 per cent.

Chief executive Geoff Dixon said on Tuesday that Qantas was determined not to back down over the dispute, saying it was faced with the soaring global cost of fuel.

'Everybody, apparently except the engineers, realises that fuel is almost out of control, that all airlines around the world are making major changes to their business, and we have to do the same,' he told national radio. -- AFP