Qantas Announces 500 Job Cuts, Dropped Profits

Miranda Kerr picked an interesting time to become the face of the Flying Kangaroo airline.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced today the airline’s plans to axe about 500 jobs and two international routes after revealing that Qantas’s half year net profit of $42 million was an 83 per cent decrease from last year’s figures.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the grounding of Qantas’s fleet and continued labour disputes back in October cost the airline $194 million, and fuel prices tacked on an extra $444 million. However, the airline’s underlying profit of $202 million – a 52 per cent drop from last year – offers a miniscule glimmer of hope.

The job cuts, which Mr Joyce hinted could surpass 500 after Qantas’s sector review, will occur in the catering, maintenance and engineering sectors.

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“We will be considering a range of options including: voluntary redundancy or redeployment; using annual and long service leave where appropriate; or leave without pay to give people experience in other areas of the industry, including other airlines,” Mr Joyce told News.com.au.

The website reported that the catering sector will be consolidated into four centres (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth) and the workforce planning team will also be consolidated in Sydney. The maintenance sector will potentially be consolidated into three facilities.

There are currently no plans to move jobs overseas. "We need to minimise [the job losses] as much as we can because skilled labour is vital to this country's future," Mr Joyce told the SMH.

Starting 6 May, Qantas will discontinue its routes between Singapore and Mumbai, and between Auckland and Los Angeles. Hong Kong-London and Bangkok-London are already scheduled to be scrapped next month, according to the SMH.