Qantas to outsource more than 2,000 ground crew jobs due to coronavirus pandemic

Qantas is outsourcing more than 2,000 ground staff roles across 10 airports in a bid to lower costs as it faces a financial hit from the coronavirus pandemic.

Baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners will all lose their jobs.

The move to outsource about 2,500 jobs was first revealed in August.

The outsourcing cuts come on top of 6,000 already announced redundancies across Qantas’s workforce, revealed in June.

Qantas has now cut about 8,500 jobs, out of a pre-COVID workforce of 29,000, due to international travel bans and state border closures.

Jetstar had already outsourced ground handling roles, costing about 370 jobs. That left more than 2,000 baggage handlers and cabin cleaners fighting to keep their jobs.

Earlier this month the…