More chaos looms at the country’s airports, with aviation firefighters across Australia pushing ahead with a planned strike.

Firefighters at 27 Australian airports will stop work from 6-10am on Friday, December 9, as a bitter dispute over pay and staffing levels escalates.

Domestic and international flights will be disrupted as the country heads into the peak holiday period, with all travel restrictions relaxed in recent months.

United Firefighters Union aviation branch national secretary Wes Garrett announced the planned strike on Tuesday, saying members had “no option”.

“We expect there won’t be an aircraft moving during those four hours,” he said.

More industrial action is expected if the dispute remains unresolved, with Mr Garrett urging the federal government to step in.

Mr Garrett said the stop work action came after 100 staff were cut last year from government-owned Airservices Australia, the body responsible for keeping safe 11 per cent of the world’s airspace.

“Air travellers don’t have the protection they need because Airservices cut 100 aviation firefighters from Australia’s airports to cut costs in October 2021,” Mr Garrett said on Tuesday.

Every month more than 600 flights operated from Australia’s airports without the aviation firefighting protection required under international aviation safety regulation, he said.

“Protecting the safety of Australia’s air travellers is the No.1 priority of every aviation firefighter. That’s why we are undertaking such significant industrial action.”

“We understand that this will be extremely disruptive for Australia’s air travellers and aviation firefighters sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” he said.

“This industrial action is about getting the aviation firefighters we need to keep air travellers safe and we hope the travelling public will understand.”

Trevor Rodgers, a recently retired aviation fire commander with 38 years of experience under his belt, said that any shortage of aviation firefighters at an incident could have catastrophic consequences for passengers of a burning aircraft.

“Aviation firefighters have just three minutes to reach a burning aircraft and make an intervention to save the passengers,” he said.

After the three-minute window, a fire can quickly spread through the cabin and the chances of people surviving an internal fire are diminished.

“If we do not have the aviation firefighters and the appliances available at the time of the incident, large numbers of people will die. It’s just that simple”.

After this month’s strike vote, Airservices Australia denied any shortage of firefighters. It has labelled the union’s claims as “misleading” and “designed to justify unnecessary industrial action to support an excessive wage claim” – of 15.5 per cent.

“The decision by the United Firefighters’ Union to take strike action is irresponsible … They should not hold the aviation sector to ransom,” a spokesperson said earlier in November.

-with AAP