Flight Centre says the federal government should have acted on the Qantas industrial relations dispute sooner, and has taken steps to assist thousands of travellers left stranded by the groundings.

The travel agency said it would open as many shops as possible throughout Australia on Sunday and was, where possible, phoning customers to help them change their plans, saving them the inconvenience of lengthy call centre queues.

Flight Centre has also beefed up its after hours assistance teams in both leisure and corporate travel.

Managing director Graham Turner, who called for government intervention early last week, said the dispute had damaged the already-ailing domestic tourism industry and hampered travellers before Saturday’s dramatic decision by the airline.

“The need for a fast resolution did not just arise – resolving this dispute has been in the country’s interests for some time,” Mr Turner said in a statement.

“Given domestic tourism’s importance to the Australian economy, the government should have acted sooner to protect this extremely valuable asset.”

Mr Turner said international tourists contemplating an Australian holiday would have been deterred by the uncertainty they had seen in recent weeks.

But the decision by the Qantas board to indefinitely ground all flights would not have been taken lightly, he said.

“Qantas’s board … clearly felt that it had no other option, given the union issues it had encountered in recent months,” Mr Turner said.

“While both parties need to find a balance, it is important that management has the ability to run the business.”

Qantas on Saturday said the financial impact of the dispute with the Australian Licenced Engineers Union, Transport Workers Union, and the Australian and International Pilots Union had reached $68 million, costing the airline about $15 million a week in lost revenue.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told ABC TV on Sunday that the dramatic action was needed so unions could “share the pain”, forcing them to negotiate.

Mr Joyce told Sky News that Fair Work Australia would need to order a termination of industrial action from the airline and unions if they wanted to ensure the fleet gets back in the air.

However, if they simply order a suspension, it might not be enough to get the flying kangaroo up and running again.

He hoped the Fair Work Commission would make a termination today, which would prevent the company’s planned lock-out of staff from Monday.

Fair Work Australia’s emergency hearing is set to resume at 1400 AEDT.

Up to 80,000 Qantas passengers are currently stranded.