Struggling Australian airline Qantas yesterday said it will make dozens of pilots redundant for the first time in 40 years as it looks to slash costs to contain massive losses.
The national carrier, which announced it would cut 5,000 jobs from its workforce in February, is to call for voluntary redundancies among its Boeing 747 and 767 pilots.
A spokesman said the airline was not placing an exact number on the redundancies until the application process was complete, but reports said up to 100 positions, or just under 20 percent of the 550 pilots for both fleets, were being targeted.
Qantas has about 2,000 pilots on its books.
The airline previously said it would retire both its aging 747 and 767 fleets as part of a plan to save A$2 billion (US$1.8 billion) over the next three years, with chief executive Alan Joyce saying the airline was facing “some of the toughest conditions” it had ever seen.
Qantas chief pilot Dick Tobiano said in an internal message that plans to accelerate the retirement of the planes meant the airline was no longer able to manage the staff surplus through leave arrangements.
“It is anticipated that exits would be staggered corresponding with network and fleet reductions,” he said.
The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) said the redundancies were “regrettable,” but it would work with the company to “ensure the process was managed with as little pain to individual pilots as possible.”
“Obviously from AIPA’s perspective it is far better to see fleet reductions managed with older pilots stepping out on their own terms, rather than younger pilots being made redundant compulsorily,” AIPA president Nathan Safe said.
While the cuts could see some of Qantas’ most experienced pilots leave, Safe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he did not “have any concerns about a lack of experience resulting from this — not at all.”
“Many of the pilots who won’t take the package or won’t be targeted by the package are also some of our most experienced pilots,” he said.
Tobiano said to the pilots affected that the cuts did not reflect their contribution to Qantas, but the “realities of our fleet plan and the realities we face.”
Qantas has lobbied the Australian government for support after it announced a A$235 million loss in the six months to Dec. 31 last year as it grapples with competition from domestic rival Virgin Australia, which is majority-owned by state-run Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Air New Zealand.
Its plea for a debt guarantee, or a A$3 billion unsecured loan, was rejected, but the government said it would relax the Qantas Sale Act, which would remove restrictions limiting foreign ownership in the airline to 49 percent.
The bill passed the lower house of parliament in March, but has yet to reach the upper house Senate.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors