Qantas Airways, fresh from grounding its fleet worldwide for two days in a bruising battle with unions, said on Wednesday passenger numbers rose 3.3 percent in September.

The airline took the dramatic step of grounding its planes on Saturday before the government called on Australia's labour tribunal to intervene in a months-long battle between Qantas and the unions for its pilots, engineers and baggage handlers.

Its revenue per kilometre rose 4 percent in September from a year earlier but capacity also increased, which lowered its revenue per seat by 0.6 percentage points.

October is likely to show a drop as overtime bans and work stoppages by baggage handlers and engineers disrupted flights.