Australia's Qantas offers crew redundancies

SYDNEY: Australian airline Qantas Friday confirmed it was seeking voluntary redundancies among its 7,000 crew members as it seeks to combat fluctuating fuel prices and the cost of natural disasters.

In March the carrier said it would slash capacity and management staff due to a series of calamities including floods in Australia and earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, which coincided with a spike in oil and jet fuel prices.

"Qantas still faces considerable challenges in our international business. Our growth in the international division is slow, and uneven rates of growth on different fleets means our crewing requirements are changing," a spokeswoman told AFP.

"As a result, Qantas is offering voluntary redundancies for both domestic and international cabin crew. Qantas issued a voluntary redundancy registration of interest pack to all cabin crew members yesterday."

It did not say how many crew it was seeking to shed.

The Australian flag carrier in March said it would cut capacity and management jobs to cope with the impact of rising fuel costs and the natural disasters, which had cost the airline some Aus$140 million (US$150 million).

The redundancy offers come as a damaging industrial row brews between Qantas and its pilots, which could result in the first strike action by international pilots at the carrier in 45 years.

Last month Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said conceding to all the pilots' demands could result in job losses and place the future of the airline in jeopardy.

"There are certain demands I cannot concede to because it will endanger the survival of the company into the long run," Joyce said.

"Our international business is losing money. Our international business, if these demands are met, will go backwards even further."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011