Qantas slashes more jobs and sells pyjamas to survive Covid-19

Qantas will shed thousands of extra staff and even begin selling luxury pyjamas as the airline seeks to cut the costs needed to survive a longer than expected disruption to air travel owing to Covid-19. The Australian carrier told employees on Tuesday that it would outsource 2,500 cleaning, baggage and ground handling jobs in a bid to save A$100m ($71.7m) per year. The measures are in addition to 6,000 redundancies and 20,000 staff already put on furlough, announced by Qantas in June. “This is the greatest challenge the aviation industry has ever faced and airlines have to change how they operate to ensure they can survive long-term,” said Alan Joyce, Qantas CEon Tuesday. Qantas has grounded 220 of its aircraft, stood down most of its staff and mortgaged its planes to raise cash, Joyce added, but further cuts were required. As part of efforts to raise cash the airline has also begun selling the kangaroo-emblazoned pyjamas it usually hands to business class passengers for A$25 each. Qantas said that about 10,000 pairs of the pyjamas, which the company had a backlog of after grounding its aircraft, had sold out within hours. <br/>