Qantas will outsource 850 local corporate jobs to the consulting firm Accenture, with most of the roles moving to India as the Australian airline speeds up its investment in artificial intelligence. The plan was outlined in an internal email to staff on Tuesday from chief executive Vanessa Hudson.
Hudson said “this is hard news for some and I’m sorry for the uncertainty it brings”. She said the job cuts will begin in mid-2027, starting with finance, procurement, people and marketing roles. Most of that work will shift to teams in India, with some moving to Australia.
Modernising IT systems through a multi-year Accenture deal
Hudson described the Accenture agreement as a multi-year deal aimed at modernising the airline’s IT systems so they become more efficient. She said Qantas spends more than AU$1bn (US$691m; £514m) a year on technology, and that its back-end systems needed upgrading.
She said the airline runs on more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together. According to Hudson, the company will redesign and simplify parts of its corporate functions and reduce duplication, so staff can spend more time on work that creates value for customers. The company said the work taken over by Accenture would later be transformed further with automation and AI.
Union talks, redeployment and fuel pressures
Hudson said the pace of change in technology and AI was something “none of us has seen in our lifetime”, and that the airline was in talks with unions and staff about the plans. The firm said affected employees would be redeployed “where possible”, including into new roles in Australia.
The announcement follows a market update from the airline, which flagged fare increases and flight cuts amid higher fuel costs. Qantas employs about 28,000 people in Australia and another 4,000 globally. The company said thousands of its staff already use AI in their daily work. The Australian Services Union was approached for comment.
