Cairns Post 21/4
Up to 200 Cairns workers face the sack as Qantas streamlines its Far Northern operations.
Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti yesterday told The Weekend Post something needed to be done to restructure the airline’s Cairns operations.
"There may be redundancies," he said.
"Will it be one, 100 or 200, I don’t know. I haven’t developed the plan yet."
Mr Borghetti denied early reports that 500 workers would lose their jobs.
"We are not sacking 500 people," he said.
"But we may need to shrink in order to grow."
Only last week Qantas announced it was seeking voluntary redundancies from 150 fulltime Qantas flight attendants.
Mr Borghetti, who met with Cairns civic and business leaders this week, said he could understand people would be nervous about the group’s plans but it was in the best interest of the city to look to the future.
"Part of the way forward for achieving growth could involve a restructuring of Cairns Australian Airlines operations," Mr Borghetti said.
"However, this will be done in consultation with all stakeholders, including Mayor Kevin Byrne, and with a view to ensuring a long-term commitment to Cairns.
"I gave the mayor a commitment yesterday (Thursday) that we would work with him and other business leaders he nominated to form a long-term plan for Qantas Group operations in Cairns."
While Australian Airlines stopped flying last June it still exists as a company and has been supplying B767 aircraft and crew to Qantas for the Nagoya and Osaka routes.
Those routes will soon be taken over by Jetstar.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland chairman Stephen Olle, who was part of the group that met Mr Borghetti, said having a restructured airline was better than no airline at all.
While he understood "hard decisions" needed to be made he said he hoped any change in Qantas Group’s Cairns operations would not have a negative impact on tourism numbers.
"We would hope that Qantas and Jetstar continue to service Cairns with as many flights as possible," Mr Olle said.
"(But) with Australian Airlines taken out as a brand it was obvious the group would restructure at some stage.
"It is a difficult environment for them with market pressure to keep ticket prices down."
An industry insider said the Qantas-owned Caterair was one area where job cuts were likely.
"Caterair staff were told last week their jobs were on the line and redundancies were likely to be offered," the source said.