Attempts by the airline to assure workers the move is likely a one-off appear to have failed, with at least one union saying negotiations have broken down.
Workers in Sydney who are already upset about the airline's decision to axe 480 jobs and shut down the heavy maintenance base will march during peak morning travel hours to protest against what they see as the airline's failure to commit to Australian maintenance services.
Qantas last night was warning passengers to allow extra time to make flights while the industrial action was under way between 7.45am and 10am.
"We will be monitoring the situation closely and doing everything possible to minimise the impact on customers," said Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said the action was not meant to affect flight schedules and that the timing had been determined by the availability of members.
AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron said workers had lost confidence and trust in Qantas after its decision to send the 747 maintenance work overseas.
He accused the airline of deliberately trying to keep its decision on the aircraft from unions and attempting to tear down "the best maintenance service in the world" by blindly pursuing a cost-cutting agenda.
"They stood before the unions two weeks ago and said they were maintaining their fleet in Australia and they'd made the decision not to offshore," Mr Cameron said.
"Ten days later they're offshoring a major check.
"They had the chance to tell us that at the time, they must have been in negotiations."
Mr Cameron said workers now believed Qantas could not be trusted and were determined to defend their jobs. He said negotiations on the job cuts and enterprise bargaining agreement were now "up in the air".
"I just don't think we're going very far at the moment," he said. "The last time we had a dispute with Qantas was a few years ago and it lasted for a long time."
However, with new workplace regulations due to come into effect at the end of the month, the union's options for protest could be extremely limited.
Qantas wants to shut down its Sydney heavy maintenance base by May and move the work to Brisbane and Avalon in Victoria.
The airline says it is sending the 747 overseas because its Sydney maintenance is winding down, Avalon is not ready and the work cannot be done in Australia in the required time.
Qantas head of engineering David Cox has said the airline had no immediate plans to send more aircraft overseas and the decision did not threaten or change the airline's strategy to keep its maintenance work in Australia.
Other maintenance unions are also unhappy about the decision and the airline's licensed engineers have called for the work to remain at Sydney.
The maintenance fracas came as Qantas refuellers walked off the job yesterday over job security and entitlement issues.
The airline's pilots' union has also vowed to press on with Federal Court action over Jetstar's international operations and accused the airline of reneging on a deal to give office bearers leave to perform union duties.
The union claims the Qantas move to start up Jetstar International reduces the career and pay prospects of mainline pilots.
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