The carrier, which retrenched almost 2000 ground crew workers in 2020, lost billions of dollars due to the pandemic which decimated the aviation sector.

As domestic and international travel picked up, Qantas was experiencing cancelled flights, lost baggage, lengthy delays for travellers and low staff morale.

A parliamentary hearing into the Fair Work Amendment bill in Sydney, was told by Qantas executives the carrier was impacted by the virus as it began to spread within the community.

When asked if disruptions could have been avoided through the direct employment of ground crew, a Qantas executive said outsourced workers didn't affect performance.

"The concept that we broke baggage handling if you like when we outsourced it is wrong," he said.

"Not least because it went to companies who do this for all airlines around the world, it's what they specialise in.

"Covid was circulating in a way it never had before ... so we saw sick rates of up to 50 per cent."

The hearing was told this year's Easter period was "particularly poor" performance wise, but that was not a result of the external labour that had been brought in.

The executive pointed to the same travel period two years earlier in 2020, where baggage handling had been fully outsourced.

"We did not have issues meeting demand and living up to the standards that people expect from Qantas," he said.

Australian Associated Press