QANTAS will cut 1500 jobs, cancel plans to hire 1200 workers and retire 22 planes as it continues to grapple with higher fuel costs.
“We hope there will not be anymore job cuts, but we don't know where oil will be 12 months,” chief executive Geoff Dixon told reporters.
The airline said planned capacity growth for the next eight months would cut from 8 per cent to zero and a recruitment and executive pay freeze would be maintained for the foreseeable future.
It is also closing two overseas call centres, suspending recruitment for Jetstar and closing the low-cost carrier's Adelaide pilot base.
Shares of Qantas were up 1.2 per cent at $3.34 by late morning. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index was 0.9 per cent lower.
Mr Dixon said the job cuts would principally in non-operational areas, with a reduction of 20 per cent in management and head office support staff.
He said every effort would be made to achieve job cuts through voluntary redundancy, early retirements, leave without pay, an accelerated leave program and converting positions from full-time to part time.
But he said some compulsory redundancies would be necessary, although he was unable to specify how many.
The redundancy program would be completed by December.
He said the airline aimed to cut capacity on a route-by-route basis. This meant the group would stay in markets but could reduce its presence on some routes.
“Basically, the pain has been spread across the network,” Mr Dixon said.
The company was seeing a slowdown in domestic leisure travel.
“I think it's as tough as I've seen it,” Mr Dixon said. “It's not just aviation being hurt by oil prices - it's other things, such as food.”
He said the government's emission trading scheme, which appeared to have unfairly singled out aviation, could have bigger effect on tourism and the domestic industry, including regional aviation.
Qantas will proceed with its ambitious fleet renewal plan and Mr Dixon said the need for new, fuel efficient planes was now stronger than ever.
The airline also announced it had reached an in-principle pay deal with its engineers and this should mean a quick end to the delays being experienced by customers over the past 10 weeks.
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