Qantas to cut 850 jobs in major AI and technology overhaul

By Andrew Curran.

Qantas has inked a technology and AI partnership with consultancy Accenture that will see 850 jobs in finance, marketing, procurement and human resources cut at the airline. Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson says the job losses may be “difficult news for some of our people”, but the Accenture deal is about future-proofing the business.

"We need to reinvent the processes, platforms and data behind our business so we can innovate faster and deliver a better, more connected experience for our customers and our people,” said Hudson in a November 10 media statement.

“We know this will be difficult news for some of our people, and this decision is not a reflection of their contribution or commitment.”

The Qantas Group, which includes the Qantas, Jetstar, QantasLink and Qantas Freight brands, has previously flagged plans to overhaul back-office roles. The plan is known within the company as Project IQ.

The media statement notes that Qantas currently uses technology built up over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together.

“Modernising these systems and connecting the data across them is the critical next step to remove complexity, unlock innovation and accelerate the Group’s use of AI, with lasting benefits across the business,” the airline’s statement reads.

The Qantas Group says some of the back-office roles currently performed in-house will be taken over by Accenture and “delivered mostly by its teams in India and some in Australia”.

Qantas says it will consult affected employees and their unions before individual outcomes are determined, but the first round of job losses are expected to occur by mid-2027 and continue over “the coming years.”

Union says Qantas should be investing in its people, not cutting jobs

The Australian Services Union, which represents many back-office workers at Qantas, says its members should not pay the price for new technology. Following the announcement of a multi-billion-dollar annual profit for the 2026 financial year, the union said it was “it's time for them to invest it back into the same people that make [the] profit possible”.

The various Qantas Group business units employ around 28,000 people in Australia and another 4,000 offshore. The company says it is adding more jobs than it is eliminating.

“As a net employer, more than 4,400 new operational roles have been created since 2023, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers, with thousands more roles expected to be added in the years ahead,” the company’s statement says.

The 850 job losses are slightly fewer than the 1,000 initially mooted when discussions with Accenture got underway. However, as recently as August, the airline publicly played down speculation about offshoring back-office jobs. The Australian Services Union also said Qantas executives had told it there were no plans to axe local roles.

Hudson says where possible, the Qantas Group will redeploy workers into other roles across the business, including newly created positions. The company says it will also offer opportunities for reskilling and retraining.

“The scale and speed of change in this space is unprecedented and unlike anything businesses have seen in generations,” said Hudson. “Leading organisations around the world are well progressed in using technology and AI to completely transform how they work, and standing still is not an option for us.”

Photo: Qantas.
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com