Qantas is moving closer to becoming a regional airline focused on Asia with its decision to cut 500 jobs, dump two international routes and reduce capacity on some domestic services.
Most of the job losses will be focused on the group’s engineering and maintenance division, as new aircraft arriving in the fleet require less maintenance than older aircraft being retired.
Qantas today reported an 83% fall in net profit to $42 million for the six months to the end of December, blaming a $194 million cost from industrial action and the grounding of its fleet, and a $444 million increase in fuel prices.
Qantas will withdraw from the loss-making Sydney-Mumbai and Auckland-Los Angeles routes, and reduce capacity on a range of routes including Sydney-Bangkok, Sydney-Perth and Melbourne-Perth by using smaller aircraft.
The latest route cuts are in addition to its previous announcement to withdraw from the Hong Kong-London and Bangkok-London routes from next month.
However, there was little new news on Qantas’ plans for an Asia-based premium carrier, other than a pledge by CEO Alan Joyce that it would be "capital-lite".
by Ian Jarrett
