Australian tourism will be hit hard by ongoing Qantas strikes, with early signs bookings for Christmas will be down up to ten per cent on last year and "brand Australia's" international image tarnished.

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt has applauded a resolution to the battle between Air Canada and its flight attendants that avoids a strike and settles the dispute through arbitration.

Qantas baggage handlers and other ground staff will strike next week, even as the union representing the airlines maintenance engineers suspends its own industrial action against the airline.

United Airlines pilots elected a new leader on Tuesday, just as they are negotiating a joint contract with their co-workers at Continental.

Trading in shares of American Airlines was temporarily halted on Monday for the second time this month.

Air France-KLM group Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon will step down on Monday in a management shake-up that will see Chairman Jean-Cyrille Spinetta return as CEO, French newspapers Le Figaro and Les Echos reported on Sunday.

Virgin Australia has revealed it will increase services from Tullamarine in time for the peak Melbourne Cup week, swooping on the business market while industrial unrest engulfs Qantas.

American Airlines and its pilots union are working to reach a contract agreement over the next several days, spurred by a manpower shortage that forced the carrier to cut flights and close a crew base.

Australian airline Qantas on Saturday announced to cancel 400 domestic flights due to on-going engineer strike.