Flights will be cut, Staff will be cut and prices will go up
Qantas has announced that it will be cutting jobs and flights in order to try and stem the losses that the rising price of fuel and the lasting effects of recent natural disasters are causing.
It is likely that flights to Japan, Melbourne and New Zealand will be reduced, that aircraft will be downsized and jobs cut accordingly however it has been indicated that only management positions will be cut in the near future. Qantas staff are already planning strike action and this latest piece of news will only hasten this.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has said that the actions being undertaken are in response to the recent natural disasters in Australia, New Zealand and Japan and the rising price of jet fuel all of which have cost Qantas more than $140 million.
“The significant and sustained increases in the price of fuel, is the most serious challenge Qantas has faced since the Global Financial Crisis,” he said.
“The price of Singapore Jet Fuel has risen from around US$88 per barrel in September 2010, to more than US$131 per barrel today. Qantas fuel costs for the second half of [the financial year] will be $2 billion.
“There has never been a time when the world faced so many natural disasters, all of which have come at a significant financial cost to the Qantas Group.”
From next month flights to Japan will be cut significantly, flights from Perth to Narita will be cut altogether and flights from Sydney to Narita will be downsized from a Boeing 747 to an Airbus 330.
On top of the cuts to services, Qantas have indicated that they are likely to increase fuel surcharges again if jet fuel prices continue the current upward trend.
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