Qantas says more jobs may be cut

Qantas has warned more jobs could join the thousands it’s already cut if borders remain closed for an extended period.

Qantas has warned more job losses may be needed if state borders continued to slam shut, and international borders remained closed beyond October.

Appearing before the Senate committee examining the impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s aviation industry, Qantas domestic and international chief executive Andrew David outlined the grim situation in which the airline had found itself since the pandemic struck.

Some of the nearly 1200 cabin crew to farewell Qantas since the COVID crisis erupted. From left to right: Jimmy Wu, Naoko Iwata, David Leslie, Amanda Vince, Emmanuel Fardoulis, Catharine Dunn and Brad Johnson. Picture: John Feder

He said it had been in the process of hiring staff and expanding when the international border closed, resulting in 8500 job cuts and $11bn of lost revenue.

Although they were now hopeful state borders would remain open in line with the vaccination rollout and international flights would resume in October, Mr David acknowledged that there was no certainty.

“If things change there may be more (redundancies),” Mr David told the public hearing.

“When we come through this and out the other end, we need to be fighting fit because we’ll be carrying more debt we have to pay down, and we’ve issued more shares. When we get through the pandemic, we need to be able to stand on our own two feet to start growing and hiring.”

Qantas Domestic CEO Andrew David.

Flight Attendants Association secretary Teri O’Toole also fronted the committee, warning that without JobKeeper many stood-down cabin crew would struggle. “JobKeeper has been a lifesaver for these people and we ask that the life-support system not be switched off,” she said.

Union leaders representing pilots and licensed aircraft engineers outlined the excessive loss of skilled workers from the aviation industry.

Australian and International Pilots Association vice president Barry Jackson said of the 200 pilots who had taken redundancies, over a third were training captains.

“Training is essential (to pilots). Without training to keep our skills up to date, those skills will degrade,” said Captain Jackson.

Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association national secretary Steve Purvinas told the hearing his membership had shrunk from 2600 to 2000, due to the number of jobs lost.

He said it took years to become a licensed aircraft engineers and he was concerned that without a skilled workforce, standards could decline.

“Airlines like Qantas used to go over and above, we used to check an aircraft every time it came through – check the tyres, the engines, go talk to the pilot,” Mr Purvinas said.

“That eventually became a once a day check and they’ve now got approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to check the planes once every three days.

“If we don’t have enough engineers for that, I’m concerned the call will go through to CASA and they’ll rubber stamp another change and it will lead to something that we don’t want to talk about.”

Another public hearing on Thursday will hear from Airservices Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Department of Finance.