Qantas to outsource 850 jobs to Accenture, mostly in India
Cuts begin in mid-2027 with finance, procurement, HR and marketing roles under a multi-year deal to rebuild Qantas's back-end systems.
Summary
In brief
- Qantas will move 850 Australian corporate jobs to Accenture, mostly to teams in India
- Finance, procurement, HR and marketing roles go first, starting in mid-2027
- Australian Services Union says Qantas had promised not to move jobs offshore
Qantas will hand 850 Australian corporate jobs to Accenture, with most of the work moving to India, Chief Executive Vanessa Hudson told staff in an email on Tuesday, citing the speed of change in AI.
The plan is the third major corporate layoff announced in Australia in three weeks, after National Australia Bank targeted 2,500 roles and Canva said 1,271 staff would lose their jobs, relocate or change roles, The Guardian reported. Australian unemployment is at its highest level in nearly five years, the newspaper said.
Qantas said it had signed a multi-year agreement with Accenture, the professional services firm, to modernize its back-end systems, processes and data as it steps up investment in technology and AI. The first roles to move are in finance, procurement, human resources and marketing, mostly to teams in India and some in Australia, Hudson wrote in the email, which BBC News reported.
The airline spends more than A$1 billion ($691 million) a year on technology, Hudson said, and its back-end systems need upgrading.
Like every airline, we run on technology built up over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together.
— Vanessa Hudson, chief executive, Qantas
The company said the work Accenture takes over will “in time” be “transformed further with automation and AI.” Affected staff will be redeployed where possible, including into new roles in Australia, and Hudson said Qantas would consult employees and unions before final decisions are made. The airline employs about 28,000 people in Australia and another 4,000 elsewhere.
The Australian Services Union said Qantas needed to explain itself after earlier promising it had no plans to move any jobs offshore. “AI is having a huge impact on workers across the country, but the cost of technology change should not be borne by the workers who have kept the airline running for years,” said Scott Cowen, the union’s assistant national secretary.
Qantas, Australia’s flag carrier since its founding in 1920, has clashed with unions over outsourcing before. Days before the announcement, it issued a market update flagging fare increases and flight cuts because of higher jet fuel prices, partly offset by passengers switching from airlines with Middle East stopovers.
The first changes are due to take effect by mid-2027, after consultation with staff and unions.