Jetstar workers cancel strike action over Christmas period

Striking Jetstar staff have announced they will take no further industrial action over Christmas and the New Year holiday period.

Jetstar was forced to cancel another batch of holiday season flights today as union staff at the Australian low-budget airline continued rolling strikes across the country.

Ground crew have been striking over pay and safety concerns, while Jetstar says work stoppages are "unjustifiable and cynically timed to hurt travellers".

Transport Workers' Union national secretary Michael Kaine says strikes are a last resort for desperate staff.

"They are sorry about the disruption but they have been left with no option," he told reporters at Sydney Airport this morning.

"Workers will take no further strike action until after the new year has hit us.

"It's a show of good faith in the face of a company that won't even come to the table."

Jetstar proactively cancelled 28 flights across the country on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the company said it would slash its January flight schedules by 10 per cent to reduce disruption to passengers.

Federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese says Jetstar and the union need to sit down and hash out a compromise.

"It's time for this to be settled because the disruption, I think, at this time of the year makes it very difficult for people," he told Triple M Hobart on Thursday.

"When workers take industrial action they lose wages. But the company, I think, loses a lot of good will when flights are cancelled."

The Australian Federation of Airline Pilots, which has also been in dispute with Jetstar, says it will not strike between December 21 and January 3.

The TWU wants more rest breaks, a guaranteed 12-hour break between shifts, guaranteed 30 hours a week and annual wage increases of four per cent.