(Newser)
Qantas plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs and keep 15,000 more workers on extended leave as Australia’s largest airline tries to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Qantas announced a plan Thursday to cut costs by billions of dollars and raise new capital, the AP reports. The plan includes landing 100 aircraft for a year or more and immediately retiring its remaining six Boeing 747 aircraft. Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said the airline should shrink as it prepares for several years of much lower earnings. He said the laid off workers faced a long interruption in the careers of their airlines.
“The actions we are taking will have a huge impact on thousands of our people. This is something that weighs heavily on all of us,” Joyce told reporters. “This is something we don’t make a decision about very easily. But the collapse of billions of dollars in revenue leaves us with few options if we want to save as many jobs as possible in the long term.” Qantas employs about 29,000 people. Joyce said she expected only about 8,000 of them would be working by next month, and 15,000 by the end of the year. He said that as international routes reopened in the next two years, he expected the workforce to rise to 21,000 again.
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