Qantas to outsource 850 jobs to Accenture, most moving to India

Australian airline Qantas plans to outsource 850 of its corporate jobs to the global consulting firm Accenture, with most of the roles moving to India. Chief executive Vanessa Hudson announced the plan to staff in an internal email on Tuesday. The airline says it is fast-tracking investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and in upgrading its ageing IT systems.

Hudson said the job cuts will begin in mid-2027. The first affected roles are in finance, procurement, people and marketing, and the work will shift mostly to teams in India and partly to teams in Australia. She acknowledged it was hard news for some employees and apologised for the uncertainty. The company is in talks with unions and staff about the plans.

Why the IT systems are being overhauled

Hudson said Qantas spends more than AU$1bn (US$691m) a year on technology and that its back-end systems need upgrading. She said that, like every airline, Qantas runs on technology built up over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together.

The new multi-year deal with Accenture will see Qantas redesign and simplify parts of how its corporate functions work and reduce duplication, so that staff can spend more time on work that creates value for customers and the business. The company said that, in time, the work taken over by Accenture will be transformed further through automation and AI.

What happens to staff

Affected employees will be redeployed where possible, including into new roles in Australia. Qantas employs about 28,000 people in Australia and another 4,000 globally, and says thousands of them already use AI in their daily work.

The announcement comes days after the airline issued a market update that flagged fare increases and flight cuts amid higher fuel costs. The BBC has contacted the Australian Services Union for comment.