Australia's Qantas to axe 850 jobs in offshoring deal with Accenture

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more.

Unlock these with Subscription

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!

Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers

Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary.

The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

Published - November 10, 2026 12:44 pm IST - SYDNEY

Qantas airline, Australia’s ​flag carrier, said the move ‌was in response to rapid changes in the industry due to AI. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Qantas said on Tuesday (November 10, 2026) it would cut ​850 jobs in Australia and outsource some corporate functions to ⁠consulting firm Accenture as it adapts to the increased use of artificial intelligence in the airline industry.

In an email to staff, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said the jobs would ‌be cut “over the coming years”, with the first round to happen by mid-2027.

“I know this is hard news for some, ‌and I’m sorry for the uncertainty it brings,” Ms.

Hudson said.

The job ‌cuts ⁠affect around 3% of Qantas’ Australian workforce of 28,000.

The first ⁠phase of the cuts would affect finance, procurement, human resources and marketing staff.

Some roles would be shifted to Accenture and performed by teams that would be “mostly” based in India.

The airline, Australia’s ​flag carrier, said the move ‌was in response to rapid changes in the industry due to AI, and the Accenture partnership would help it overhaul its legacy systems and simplify some corporate functions.

“Through a partner we can access the data and ‌AI skills that every industry in the world is competing for, ​because we cannot hire at the pace this work needs,” Ms.

Hudson said.

Qantas is the latest in a growing number of ⁠big Australian companies to offshore workers in a bid to cut costs and improve efficiency.

Woolworths, Officeworks, Telstra and National Australia Bank have announced similar moves this year.

The ‌Australian Services Union said in a statement that Qantas had previously assured staff there was no plan to offshore jobs under the Accenture deal.

“Earlier this year, Qantas told us directly there was no plan to offshore any jobs.

Today, they’ve come out and told hundreds of staff members that their work will now be delivered mostly from people overseas,” ASU Assistant National ‌Secretary Scott Cowen said.

“Qantas staff have the right to an explanation.”

“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.”

A Qantas spokesperson denied giving such assurances to ⁠the ASU.

“We have never given assurances to the union that some jobs wouldn’t move offshore,” they said.

“We have met with the union on ‌a number of occasions over the last few months to discuss the potential for some roles to move to Accenture, with work to ​be delivered by their teams in India and in Australia.”

company information / air transport / Artificial Intelligence

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences.

They cannot be abusive or personal.

Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform.

If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles.