Thousands of Qantas jobs are up for grabs as the national carrier looks at all options
Qantas has thrown out the carrot for thousands of jobs as it restructures to fit the “new normal”, with Premier Steven Marshall saying the government would bid to lure more Qantas jobs to SA.
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The State Government will make a pitch to attract Qantas jobs to South Australia, as the national carrier pits state against state in a bid to win its favour.
Qantas announced today that 6000 to 7000 jobs were effectively up for grabs with the company reviewing the location of its key facilities such as its Sydney head office, Jetstar's Melbourne office, and flight training and heavy engineering centres.
Premier Steven Marshall said the government had been talking to Qantas during the past couple of days, and Leonie Muldoon, the head of the Department of Investment and Trade would head up SA’s bid.
“We’re going to put our best foot forward and we’re going to put in a bid. We’d like to see Qantas move more staff to South Australia,’’ the Premier said.
“There are a huge number of opportunities which I think are in front of us in South Australia at the moment, not just Qantas.”
“We’ve always been one of the 10 most liveable cities in the world, we’re now the safest city in the world, and what people have learnt in recent months with COVID-19 is that you don’t need to be on the 68th floor of a building in Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore or London.
“Everyone’s been working from home. I think this opens up a lot of opportunities for some of our larger global and national companies to consider South Australia, some of them for the very first time.
“We are working on a huge number of opportunities for our state.’’
Mr Marshall said SA had some unique skills, particularly in areas such as aviation maintenance, which could be well suited to what Qantas is looking for.
The nation’s biggest airline has been hit hard by the COVID pandemic, forcing it cut 6000 staff in June, announce another 2500 likely job losses last month, and stand down thousands more across Australia.
In a bid to set the company up for success coming out of the pandemic, it is conducting a root and branch review of its assets, and state governments are being asked to make their best pitch to win those jobs.
Qantas has explicitly set the process up as a bidding war between the states, and there are likely to be spirited attempts to win them over.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Malinauskas said the government needed to make an “assertive” bid for the jobs on offer, and “not die wondering”.
“This represents a really significant opportunity for South Australia,’’ Mr Malinauskas said.
“Qantas has made it clear that cost is a significant variable and South Australia is a low-cost jurisdiction in comparison to places like Sydney and Melbourne, particularly when you’re talking about office accommodation.
“We've got to put our best foot forward.’’
Mr Malinauskas added the government should not have wound up the former Labor Government’s Investment Attraction Agency.
“You’ve got to get out there and fight or these jobs, and not die wondering,’’ he said.
Qantas’s chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson said the company would be open to many options for the new shape of the company.
“Like most airlines, the ongoing impact of COVID means we’ll be a much smaller company for a while. We’re looking right across the organisation for efficiencies, including our $40 million annual spend on leased office space,’’ Ms Hudson said.
“As well as simply right sizing the amount of space we have, there are opportunities to consolidate some facilities and unlock economies of scale. For instance, we could co-locate the Qantas and Jetstar head offices in a single place rather than splitting them across Sydney and Melbourne.
“Most of our activities and facilities are anchored to the airports we fly to, but anything that can reasonably move without impacting our operations or customers is on the table as part of this review. We’ll also be making the new Western Sydney Airport part of our thinking, given the opportunity this greenfield project represents.’’
Qantas currently employs about 900 people in Adelaide.
A single, all-purpose campus, which would likely be an economic boon were a state to win that prize, would also be considered, Ms Hudson said.
“This is about setting the Qantas Group up for the long term as well as recovering from the COVID crisis. And we’re open minded about the outcome. It’s possible that our HQ stays where it is but becomes a lot smaller, and other facilities consolidate elsewhere. Or we could wind up with a single, all-purpose campus that brings together many different parts of the Group. These are all options we need to consider as we look to the future.’’
The review is expected to take three months to determine preferred options.
Qantas said any relocations are likely to be staggered over time, potentially years, dependent on what options are taken up.