Qantas cuts back
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Qantas is slashing capacity by five percent by cutting routes, services and jobs and retiring several aircraft to cope with soaring fuel prices.
In a statement, Chief Executive Geoff Dixon said the airline’s fuel bill would increase by more than A$2 billion (US$1.9 billion) in 2008/09, representing about 35% of the company’s total expenditure.
“Despite our fuel hedging strategy, fuel surcharges, two separate across-the-board fare increases and a recruitment freeze, we are not bridging the widening gap between the actual increase in the cost of fuel and the amount we offset.”
Dixon said the flag-carrier would retire one B737 aircraft, ground two B767 aircraft, accelerate the retirement of four B747-300 aircraft, and adjust the flying patterns of other planes.
Qantas’ budget off-shoot Jetstar will lose one A320 aircraft and the delivery of another A321 will be cancelled.
“This will enable us to make significant changes to domestic and international flying for both Qantas and Jetstar,” Dixon said. “In some cases, this will involve pulling off routes entirely. In other cases, we will scale back frequencies and capacity.”
Several domestic routes currently operated by Qantas and Jetstar will be cancelled while other services will be reduced. Dixon said changes to the airline’s international network will be announced within a week.
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