Qantas Airways plans to cut the controllable cost base of its international business by $1 billion, or one third,
Controllable costs include things like changing international routes (such as cutting flights to New Zealand in non-peak periods) and fleet changes (such as retiring some of its fuel-guzzling 747s) but do not include fuel, depreciation or operating leases, Fairfax Media reports.
Chief financial officer Gareth Evans told the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit recently: "For us, it’s about controlling what we can control, and pulling out $1 billion worth of costs [and] continuing to improve the network and the product quality for our customers is absolutely what we can control."
Qantas has already said it is targeting about $2 billion in cost savings overall — now it can be reported about half of these savings will come from the airline's international business.
Analysts say more job cuts can be expected.
"They will probably announce they will cut another 2000 or 3000 [jobs] on top of the 5000 already announced," one told Fairfax.
Qantas is expected to report a pre-tax underlying loss of $750 million this financial year.