Qantas wants to avoid introducing involuntary layoffs of flight crews, as the company plans to announce its new direction by the end of the month.
The news was announced to Qantas’ pilots directly on June 22, 2020, reported Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter. If the airline were to fire its flight crews in the coming months, it would be a “failure”, indicated the Chief Executive Officer of Qantas International, Tino La Spina. However, La Spina also mentioned that flexibility would be required from its workforce, including early retirements, voluntary layoffs and pilots’ wage reductions in order for the Australian company to avoid flight crew redundancies in the coming months.
Most recently, Qantas was forced to cancel all of its international flights until late-October 2020, as the Australian government banned overseas travel until 2021, with the exception of the Australian-New Zealand travel bubble over the Tasman Sea. As of now, flights over the Tasman Sea are suspended until mid-July 2020.
Domestic travel, however, is booming, as Qantas and its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar, have launched a seat sale campaign. The low-cost subsidiary set new records, a press release indicated, while bookings for Qantas’ flights doubled, compared to the most recent results.
Furthermore, it pushed back its illustrious Project Sunrise flights indefinitely and indicated plans to exit Jetstar Pacific joint venture in Vietnam to preserve liquidity.