Faced with work stoppages by its 1700 engineers from January 9, which are set to cripple operations, Qantas has attempted to lure back former engineering staff who took redundancies when it closed its Sydney 747 heavy maintenance base in May last year. "The money being offered is nearly double what they were paid previously," said one engineer, who asked not to be named. Qantas's head of people, Kevin Brown, declined to comment on the speculation. But he said the airline was "pursuing a variety of arrangements … [to] ensure our passengers can book with confidence through January".