Australia Qantas Airlines to Cut 2,500 Jobs Due to COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Qantas Airways, Australia's leading airline, announced the layoff of 2,500 employees.

According to Bloomberg on the 3rd (local time), Qantas stated that domestic flights departing from and arriving in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, are expected to be suspended for at least two months due to the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

NSW imposed a lockdown on Greater Sydney and other areas on the 26th of last month as the Delta variant spread, but extended the lockdown period to the 28th of this month as the spread did not subside.

Qantas has already suspended international flights due to border closure measures.

Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, said in a statement, "We are facing a prolonged decline in air travel demand," adding, "It will likely take several more weeks to resume operations."

As a result, the total number of layoffs at Qantas will increase to 9,500. Previously, Qantas had laid off 7,000 employees working overseas. The current number of employees, including those on unpaid leave and vacant positions, is 22,000.

Qantas and its low-cost carrier (LCC) subsidiary Jetstar operated at pre-pandemic levels until May, but due to the lockdowns caused by the Delta variant spread starting last month, the number of flights has dropped to less than 40%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.