On Tuesday, Australia’s airline services, Qantas, announced to cut further 2500 jobs after earlier posting a similar 6000 employee cut in June, taking the total lost staff to more than 30% level as compared to the pre-pandemic level.
The latest cut is primarily because the company has decided to outsource its Australian ground handling operations at a lower cost to fix the $7.17B (AU$10 billion) loss to the airways due to the pandemic in the year 2020.
Moreover, the company’s prominent operational person, Andrew David, stated that the move would aid the Qantas in saving around $100M in operating costs every year while Chief Executive of Qantas’ Budgeting Department, Gareth Evans, reported that the firm would additionally save around AU$100M in the next year in equipment like bag loaders, tugs, etc. by outsourcing the services.
Although Qantas did not name any outsourcing venture, the pioneer in the ground handling field in Australia are dnata, Menzies Aviation, and Swissport.
Most of the ground employees at the company reported zero hour work for months as the pandemic has caused drastic loss to the travel industry and have been receiving the government financial help.