WELLINGTON Qantas plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs and keep 15,000 more workers on extended furloughs as Australia's largest airline tries to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
Qantas announced a plan Thursday to reduce costs by billions of dollars and raise fresh capital.
The plan includes grounding 100 planes for a year or more and immediately retiring its six remaining Boeing 747 planes.
Chief Executive Alan Joyce said the airline has to become smaller as it braces for several years of much lower revenues.
This crisis has still hit us very, very hard and the impact will be felt for a long time," Joyce said.