Firefighters at Canberra Airport are set to strike for four hours on Friday next week in a dispute over staffing levels.
The walk-out from 6am on December 9 is expected to disrupt travel at the start of the big holiday period.
The Head of Aviation at Canberra Airport, Michael Thomson, said: "We hope these industrial relations issues are resolved and do not disrupt travellers unnecessarily.
"If you are travelling on the morning of December 9, you should follow the advice of your airline regarding your flight status."
Much will depend on how the disruption of the first four hours of the flying day will knock on into the rest of the day and the weekend. Aircraft may find themselves out of position so flight schedules will be disrupted for longer.
It is not clear what the legal obligations on the airport are for having fire crews ready for take-offs and landings but people in the industry said it was hard to imagine planes operating without the safety standby.
The Canberra Airport action is part of a national strike across 27 airports.
The United Firefighters Union Aviation Branch said it had called the strike because the jobs of 100 staff across the country were cut last year by the government agency, Airservices Australia.
The secretary of the union branch, Wes Garrett, said months of talks has failed to find a solution.
"We understand that this will be extremely disruptive for Australia's air travellers and aviation firefighters sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.
"But for over a year now, the safety of air travellers has been consistently put at risk each time they board an aircraft because we don't have enough aviation firefighters to protect them if their plane crashes or catches fire, and that's not acceptable.
"This industrial action is about getting the aviation firefighters we need to keep air travellers safe and we hope the travelling public will understand."
He said that this strike was the first in the union's history.
