Political reaction: The Government last night issued a plea to Aer Rianta unions to "sit down and talk" with the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.
"Nobody likes to see industrial unrest," said a Government spokesman.
"The Government has made a decision to go forward. We would make a plea to the unions to sit down and talk and find some way through this."
The wider trades union movement will have the opportunity on Friday to express their opinions about the Aer Rianta break-up proposals when they meet the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, at the plenary meeting of the social partners in Dublin Castle.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, will also attend.
However, the Government has rejected charges that Mr Brennan has acted unilaterally on the Aer Rianta issue.
"There was dialogue and there was time for consultation," a spokeswoman said.
Fine Gael transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten TD, welcomed "the decision to postpone industrial action" at the airports and called on Mr Brennan to meet the unions urgently to discuss his plans for the future of Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.
Fine Gael said it would seek the views of the EU Commission vice-president and the Commissioner for Transport, Ms Loyola de Palacio, on the break-up of Aer Rianta at a meeting with her in Brussels today.
Party leader, Mr Enda Kenny TD, and deputy transport spokesman, Mr Pat Breen TD, will travel to Brussels for the meeting.
The main topic for discussion with Ms de Palacio will be the development of European aviation policy, particularly the "open skies" proposal.
At least one Dáil deputy's travel plans were delayed by yesterday's action.
However, Cork Deputy Denis O'Donovan (FF), who was travelling from his home city to Dublin, took the disruption in his stride, declaring he wasn't "too affected" by the delay.
"I'm lucky I've only an hour to wait. Workers are entitled to raise questions and hopefully they'll get the answers they are looking for," Mr O'Donovan said.
Meanwhile, Ryanair said it was urging holiday-makers who were delayed by yesterday's action to seek compensation from Aer Rianta.
The airline claimed that unions had shown "total disregard for the travelling public".
Ryanair's head of communications, Mr Paul Fitzsimmons, said: "It shows just how out of touch the unions are ...This is further proof that Séamus Brennan's decision to break up Aer Rianta was the right one.
"We are urging holiday-makers who have been delayed today to write to Aer Rianta and demand compensation."