On Tuesday Qantas announced enormous cut backs to its international and domestic services in response to coronavirus. Around 150 planes are will be grounded between now and May 2020.
There will now be a 90 per reduction on international flights across Qantas and Jetstar and a 60 per cent reduction domestically. This is a huge jump from the 23 per cent international and 5 per cent domestic cuts that were made by the company just last week.
Qantas stated in a press release that the reductions will extend through “at least the end of May 2020”. It also confirmed that, “previously announced cuts in place from end-May through to mid-September remain in place and are likely to be increased, depending on demand.”
While the impacted routes are yet to be announced, Qantas has said that they will be released in the coming days. While you won’t be able to see if your flights are impacted yet, it’s probably a good idea to prepare for a cancellation or perhaps preemptively do it yourself.
Qantas went on to address the drop in travel demand, as well as the impact on workers in the statement.
“The precipitous decline in demand and resulting cuts to flying mean that the Qantas Group is confronted with a significant labour surplus across its operations. Travel demand is unlikely to rebound for weeks or possibly months and the impact of this will be felt across the entire workforce of 30,000 people.
The Qantas Group is working to manage this impact as much as possible, including through the use of paid and unpaid leave. This will be in addition to measures already announced, including three months of no pay for the CEO and Chairman, significant pay cuts for Group Executive Management and Board members, and cancelling of annual bonuses and an off-market buy back.”
This news comes just one day after Qantas announced it would provide travel credits to customers who cancel flights between now and May 31.
Credits can be used within 12 months of the ticket issue and there will be no change fees applied to these bookings.
You can read Qantas’ press release from Tuesday over at the Qantas website.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/03/coronavirus-australia-qantas-offers-travel-credits-for-flight-cancellations/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/qantas-plane-410×231.jpeg” title=”Coronavirus Australia: Qantas Offers Travel Credits For Flight Cancellations” excerpt=”Qantas has announced it will give travel credits to customers who cancel flights between now and May 31 due to COVID-19.”]