Key facts
- Qantas said the first phase of cuts would affect finance, procurement, human resources and marketing staff.
- Some roles would move to Accenture and be performed by teams mostly based in India, Qantas said.
- Qantas said the cuts affect around 3% of its Australian workforce of 28,000.
- Hudson said Qantas spends more than AU$1bn a year on technology and has more than 1,000 legacy applications.
- Qantas said it employs about 28,000 staff in Australia and another 4,000 globally.
Qantas said on November 10, 2026 that it would cut 850 jobs in Australia and outsource some corporate functions to consulting firm Accenture, with most of the affected roles moving to India, as the airline accelerates investment in artificial intelligence.
In an internal email to staff, Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson said the cuts would begin by mid-2027 and start with finance, procurement, people and marketing roles shifting mostly to teams in India and some remaining in Australia. Hudson said the airline was in talks with unions and staff on the plans.
Hudson said the scale and speed of change in technology and AI was something none of us has seen in our lifetime, and that standing still was not an option. She said the multi-year Accenture deal was about modernizing the airline's IT systems to make them more efficient.
Qantas spends more than AU$1 billion (US$691 million) a year on technology, Hudson said, and its back-end systems needed upgrading. She said the airline runs on technology built over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together.
The cuts affect around 3% of Qantas' Australian workforce of 28,000. The airline, which also employs about 4,000 staff globally, said thousands of its staff already use AI in their daily work, and that the work Accenture takes over would in time be transformed further with automation and AI.
The move comes days after the airline provided a market update flagging fare increases and flight cuts amid higher fuel costs. The BBC said it had contacted the Australian Services Union for comment.