The company's human resources director Lesley Grant is set to retire at the end of the year and her role will remain unfilled. Employees working for Grant will be assigned to different offices, something chief executive Alan Joyce said would cut down on “complexity” and make operations more efficient.
The firm’s “strong focus” on slashing costs comes as the industry contends with decrease demand for air travel, Joyce said. A Qantas spokesman affirmed there would be job cuts, but denied reports that cited as many as 1,200 jobs would be eliminated. “We recently confirmed that our group executive committee would reduce by one and there would be consolidation of some corporate roles where it made sense to do so, but the figures being quoted are wrong,” the spokesman said. “To be clear about this, we are still growing in cabin crew, in pilots, in airport staff.”