Qantas will sack 6000 employees as part of a drastic three-year recovery plan from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the airline's chief executive Alan Joyce saying the reality is these roles "are jobs we don't see coming back for a long time".

Mr Joyce expects the airline's redundancy bill to reach $600 million, as another 15,000 workers at Qantas remain stood down during the industry-wide crisis.