Australian Qantas has decided to cut 2,000 more jobs.
The airline will move to outsource ground handling operations at 10 airports across Australia as part of cost cutting measures. Termination notices were made by the airline in the morning to 2,000 employees.
Qantas had 29,000 employees before the Covid-19 crisis. This number will decrease by 8,500 staff with the latest announcement.
Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said:
”This is another tough day for Qantas, particularly for our ground handling teams and their families. We thank every one of them for their professionalism and contribution over the years supporting our customers and operations.
”Unfortunately, COVID has turned aviation upside down. Airlines around the world are having to make dramatic decisions in order to survive and the damage will take years to repair.
”While there has been some good news recently with domestic borders, international travel isn’t expected to return to pre-COVID levels until at least 2024. We have a massive job ahead of us to repay debt and we know our competitors are aggressively cutting costs to emerge leaner.”
Qantas reported a loss of $ 2.7 billion for 2020 due to COVID-19 and related limit restrictions. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Qantas Group has taken on in excess of $1.5 billion in additional debt.
