Qantas to Cut About 850 Corporate Jobs in Accenture Outsourcing Deal

Qantas Airways will cut about 850 corporate jobs in Australia under a multiyear technology and artificial intelligence partnership with Accenture, the airline said Tuesday.

The cuts are about 3 percent of the airline's Australian workforce of about 28,000 people. They will fall over the coming years, with the first wave in place by mid-2027.

Finance, procurement, people and marketing move first

The first phase covers finance, procurement, human resources and marketing. Some of that work will shift to Accenture, the consulting firm, and be performed mostly by its teams in India.

Some services will stay with Accenture teams in Australia. Over time, the company said, the transferred work will be changed further with automation and artificial intelligence.

A back office built over decades is the target

"We need to reinvent the processes, platforms and data behind our business so we can innovate faster," Chief Executive Vanessa Hudson said in a statement Tuesday. "Accenture has a global track record of doing this work for large organizations, including other airlines," she said.

"Like every airline, Qantas runs on technology built up over decades for a different era," the company said in its statement. It counts more than 1,000 legacy applications, meaning older software systems, that were never designed to work together.

In an email to staff the same day, Hudson called the pace of technology and AI change unlike anything seen in a lifetime. "Standing still is not an option for us," she wrote.

"Through a partner we can access the data and AI skills that every industry in the world is competing for, because we cannot hire at the pace this work needs," Hudson wrote. She said the partnership would help Qantas redesign and simplify how its corporate functions work and reduce duplication.

"I know this is hard news for some, and I'm sorry for the uncertainty it brings," Hudson wrote in the email. She said Qantas will aim to redeploy workers into other roles across the group where possible.

The union says it was promised the opposite

The Australian Services Union, which represents many of the affected staff, said Qantas had previously assured staff there was no plan to offshore jobs. Offshoring means moving work to teams in another country.

"Earlier this year, Qantas told us directly there was no plan to offshore any jobs," said Scott Cowen, the union's assistant national secretary. "Today, they've come out and told hundreds of staff members that their work will now be delivered mostly from people overseas."

"Qantas staff have the right to an explanation," Cowen said. He added that the cost of technology change should not fall on the workers who kept the airline running for years.

A Qantas spokesperson denied that any such assurance was given. "We have never given assurances to the union that some jobs wouldn't move offshore," the spokesperson said.

The airline said it had met the union several times in recent months. The talks covered the potential for some roles to move to Accenture, it said.

Fuel costs and a fleet rebuild frame the decision

The deal arrives while Qantas funds the largest fleet renewal in its history. It is also protecting profits from rising fuel bills, fanned by hostilities in the Middle East.

Qantas's statutory profit after tax, the bottom-line result, fell 19.7 percent to A$1.29 billion in the year through June, down A$316 million.

Underlying profit before tax, the measure Qantas emphasizes, was A$2.06 billion, down A$330 million. The conflict's net hit to earnings was A$420 million, after an A$610 million increase in the fuel bill.

The August results also said the group has created 4,400 new operational roles in Australia since 2023. Those are flying and frontline jobs, a different workforce from the corporate roles now in question.

Shares closed higher on the day

Qantas shares were 4.4 percent higher by early afternoon in Sydney, The Wall Street Journal reported. The gain gave the company a market value of more than US$10 billion.

By the close, the shares had risen further. Qantas closed at A$9.90, up A$0.59, or 6.34 percent, from the previous close of A$9.31.

What remains unknown

What remains unknown starts with the money: neither company disclosed the deal's value, and Qantas gave no savings target. How much of the work will be automated, rather than relocated to India, is also undisclosed.

Which individual roles go has not been announced. How many of the affected workers will be redeployed, and into which roles, is also unknown.

The first changes land by mid-2027

What to watch: whether the union dispute changes the plan's scope before the first wave takes effect. Watch also for any disclosed deal value or savings figure in Qantas's next results.