Qantas cuts flight capacity across Asia
Qantas plans to ask its 30,000-strong workforce to take annual leave now to help cut costs.
Qantas reckons the COVID-19 crisis will cost $150 million this year as it announced further capacity reductions.
Group CEO Alan Joyce said: "We’ll manage it (by asking people) to take annual leave, long-service leave and use their leave balances, which are quite considerable."
"Coronavirus resulted in the suspension of flights to mainland China, and we’re now seeing some secondary impacts and weaker demand on Hong Kong, Singapore and to a lesser extent Japan."
Seat capacity to Asia will be reduced by 16% until the end of May.
Capacity on the Sydney-Hong Kong route will be halved while Sydney-Shanghai flights will remain suspended.
Domestic capacity will be reduced by about 2% and 5% on trans-Tasman routes.
Budget subsidiary Jetstar will see its overall capacity fall by 14%, affecting flights to Thailand and Japan.
Overall the cuts are equivalent to grounding 18 aircraft.
"What’s important is that we have flexibility in how we respond to coronavirus and how we maintain our strategic position more broadly," Joyce added.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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