Qantas to cut up to 2,500 jobs as airline outsources ground handling in Australia

Qantas announced plans to cut up to 2,500 more jobs by outsourcing its Australian ground handling operations to lower costs as it braces for a A$10b revenue hit due to the pandemic this financial year. The job cuts flagged on Tuesday are on top of 6,000 across its workforce announced in June, which would take the total job losses to nearly 30% of its pre-pandemic staffing. Qantas’ head of domestic operations Andrew David said outsourcing ground handling jobs at the country’s biggest airports would save an estimated A$100m each year in operating costs. “It would match our ground handling services with fluctuating levels of demand,” David told reporters at a briefing. “We know an external party can turn our aircraft at 40% lower cost than we can using our resources.” It would also allow the airline to avoid investing A$100m in equipment like tugs and bag loaders over the next<br/>five years by outsourcing the work to a specialist ground handler, Gareth Evans, CE of Jetstar, Qantas’budget arm, said.<br/>