A snap strike by Qantas staff over the carrier's security practices caused major delays across Australia and grounded all international flights out of Sydney for up to four hours.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) accused Qantas of compromising safety and potentially risking a terrorist attack by failing to properly screen contractors before they begin work.
But the airline hit back, saying the union was trying to get political mileage out of the shooting of a Hells Angels bikie and the airport murder of his brother last week.
The union-led stop-work protests were held at the international and domestic terminals of Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane airports from 9am local times on Monday, a TWU spokesman told AAP.
Domestic passengers on flights arriving at Sydney airport were forced to leave without their luggage, while all flights at the city's international terminal were delayed by up to four hours.
Baggage was stacked waist-high at Sydney's international terminal, as baggage handlers protested outside.
A Sydney airport spokesman said all international flights were delayed by up to four hours as a result of Qantas jets being forced to remain at their gates.
TWU federal secretary Tony Sheldon said up to 25 per cent of private contract employees were not undergoing proper security checks before starting work at the airport for Qantas.
He said the bikie brawl on March 22 in the Qantas domestic terminal at Sydney airport, where Anthony Zervas was bludgeoned and possibly stabbed, showed Qantas was avoiding the issue of proper security.
"Quite clearly if a plane is at 20,000 feet in the air and it blows up it will be Qantas's fault that that's occurred," Mr Sheldon told reporters in Sydney.
"If it is an explosion or a device that explodes at one of our airports it will be Qantas that the finger will be clearly pointed at but unfortunately it will be the workforce and innocent bystanders that will be killed."
Mr Sheldon said further strike action was possible, saying it was now up to Qantas and its response to the issue.
Qantas spokesman David Epstein rejected the TWU's safety arguments, accusing Mr Sheldon of appalling etiquette for staging the "illegal" industrial action as Hells Angels Peter Zervas, Anthony's Zervas' brother, lay in hospital with gunshot wounds.
"If Mr Sheldon chooses to make that claim, all he is doing is cynically exploiting a tragedy that occurred in the T3 terminal last weekend," Mr Epstein told reporters.
"And the fact that he would do it the morning after someone's brother has been shot is just unbelievable."
A TWU spokesman told AAP that Qantas managed to get domestic staff back to work by 11am, with an offer to dock them only two hours' pay.
But international staff remained idle between 9am and 1pm (AEDT) after Qantas exercised its right to dock the maximum amount of pay for their industrial action.
"The law is quite simple: if people walk off in unauthorised industrial action, they don't get paid for four hours," Mr Epstein said.
"We make no apologies whatsoever for taking a hard line on unauthorised industrial action."
The union and the airline were expected to appear before the industrial umpire on Monday.
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