Air travel in Australia ground to a halt Thursday after all 1,600 pilots flying for the country's three major airlines resigned in a wage dispute and a government airlift failed to get off the ground.

The airlift, the largest ever attempted in Australia during peacetime, was bogged down in red tape and bureaucratic bungling that left tens of thousands of passengers stranded throughout the country.

The civilian pilots began a series of rolling strikes last week to back their demands for a 30 percent pay raise in the face of a government-ordered 6 percent ceiling on wage increases.

The country's three major domestic carriers suspended the pilots Wednesday and then announced plans for the emergency airlift.

On Thursday, the President of the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, Capt. Brian McCarthy, announced all 1,600 commercial pilots employed by the domestic carriers had resigned in protest, setting the stage for what could be a long and crippling work stoppage.

The grounding of the domestic fleet caused airport chaos, disrupted internal tourist flights and crippled business.

Aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force had been mustered to help international carriers ease the problem, but the RAAF was unable to get off the ground because of what was described as 'bureaucratic red tape.'