Qantas Airways Ltd announced yesterday it was slashing its workforce by 1,500 people worldwide, the latest in a string of measures to try to offset skyrocketing fuel costs.
Chief executive Geoff Dixon said the cuts — about 1,300 of them coming in Australia — represent 4 percent of its total workforce.
The airline said it would also close call centers in Tucson, Arizona, and London, causing the loss of 99 jobs.
Dixon said the cuts were necessary to ensure that Qantas survives what he called a crisis in the aviation industry caused by large rises in the price of fuel.
“I think it’s as tough as I’ve seen it,” Dixon told reporters. “It’s not just aviation being hurt by oil prices, it’s other things, such as food. It’s tough — there’s no doubt about it.”
Fuel accounts for about 35 percent of Qantas’ expenses and rising fuel costs are expected to add more than A$2 billion (US$2 billion) to the company’s fuel bills this fiscal year.
The airline’s work force of 36,000 people accounts for another 30 percent of costs.
The first step in the job-shedding plan would be to ask for voluntary redundancies, Dixon said.
“But unfortunately, with these numbers we will have compulsory redundancies,” he said, adding that the redundancies would be completed by December.
Australian Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would provide assistance to those who lose their jobs.
“Certainly the government is disappointed with any job losses and we want to make sure that the workers are given every support,” Albanese said.
To reduce costs even more, the firm will maintain an executive pay freeze for the foreseeable future.
The airline is also abandoning plans to increase its capacity by 8 percent in the next 12 months, with no growth whatsoever now expected in that period, Dixon said. Also, 22 older planes in Qantas’ 228-strong fleet would be retired.
Qantas’ budget subsidiary Jetstar would also be hit by the cuts, with its hiring program suspended. A Jetstar cabin crew and pilot base in the southern city of Adelaide will be shut by September.
Qantas has already increased fares twice and cut capacity twice in recent months.
The Australian Services Union (ASU), which represents airport administrative staff, said service standards would fall with the new cuts.
“To cut 20 percent of back office staff undervalues what they do, it’s not as if people are sitting around doing nothing,” said ASU assistant national secretary Linda White.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat