QANTAS will give away 100,000 free air tickets to passengers it stranded last week when it grounded its fleet.
The airline's chief executive, Alan Joyce, said the tickets, valued at $20 million, were Qantas's way of saying "we are sorry".
Qantas also will offer a bonus to all Frequent Flyer members, though Mr Joyce says the airline has not finalised exact details.
The flights giveaway brings to $50 million the total cost of the grounding, including about $30 million for the two days that flights were cancelled.
"We know that we have disrupted a huge amount of customers and we are wanting to go above and beyond to say we are sorry," Mr Joyce said yesterday after the most dramatic week in his three years as Qantas boss.
"We're sorry for what happened, and we hope people will understand why we did it."
The airline has taken out advertisements in newspapers today advising passengers they will be contacted about the free flight offer.
Mr Joyce announced last weekend he was locking out workers involved in long-running industrial action and grounding the entire global Qantas fleet.
All Australian resident passengers whose flights were disrupted in the stoppage from 5pm on Saturday, October 29, to 11.59pm on Monday, October 30 will be offered a free return economy flight to any destination within Australia, or a flight to New Zealand and back.
And passengers will be refunded the full cost of their Qantas ticket and any expenses they incurred while stranded away from home.
Passengers who bought tickets on other airlines to make up for the missed flights also will be reimbursed for the difference between the new flight and their original Qantas flight.
Mr Joyce vowed he would not allow Qantas to die as its long-time rival Ansett - for which he worked for about five years - did in 2001.
"We are never going to allow that to happen," Mr Joyce said.
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