Qantas Plans to Cut 850 Australian Jobs as Accenture Deal Moves Work to India

850 roles face change from mid-2027

Qantas plans to cut about 850 Australian corporate jobs under an agreement with Accenture that will move much of the work to India, with the first changes expected by mid-2027. The airline is combining the outsourcing with a technology overhaul covering more than 1,000 older applications and annual technology spending exceeding AU$1 billion.

Finance, procurement, human resources and marketing will be the initial focus. Qantas says the changes will unfold over several years, with services transferred mainly to Accenture teams in India and some delivered in Australia. Automation and artificial intelligence will become a larger part of that work over time.

The proposed changes affect roughly 3% of Qantas's Australian workforce, calculated from about 850 roles among approximately 28,000 employees. The group employs about 32,000 people worldwide, including around 4,000 outside Australia.

Chief executive Vanessa Hudson acknowledged the personal cost in an email to employees on Tuesday, while saying the airline needed to modernise the systems behind its business.

this is hard news for some and I'm sorry for the uncertainty it brings

Qantas says it will consult employees and unions before finalising decisions affecting individual roles and seek to redeploy staff where possible, including into new Australian positions. Unions have challenged the move, saying workers were previously assured that jobs would stay in Australia.

The announcement brings together two changes with different consequences for employees: transferring work to another company overseas and redesigning that work with technology. Understanding the order matters because the airline describes an initial shift to Accenture, followed by further automation.

Which jobs will move to Accenture?

Qantas's stated starting point is the corporate work that supports the airline rather than flying aircraft or serving passengers in the cabin. Finance teams manage money and accounts; procurement teams buy goods and services; human resources handles employment matters; and marketing promotes the business.

Accenture will take over some services provided by these functions under an agreement lasting several years. Most of the transferred work will be delivered by its teams in India, while some will remain in Australia.

The affected positions have also been described as 850 IT jobs, roughly a third of the local IT workforce. Qantas's own explanation identifies the initial functions as finance, procurement, people and marketing, providing a broader description of the work being reorganised.

For an employee, outsourcing means the airline buys a service from an outside provider instead of having its own staff perform it. Moving that service to India also changes where the work is done. Those decisions can affect a position before software takes over any of its tasks.

Why Qantas wants to replace older systems

Qantas spends more than AU$1 billion a year on technology, yet Hudson says its internal systems still reflect decades of separate investment. She described the problem in her message to staff:

Like every airline, we run on technology built up over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together,

A legacy application is an older computer program that a business still depends on. When many programs were built separately, employees may need to move information between them or repeat steps across different systems.

Qantas says the Accenture partnership will simplify processes, connect data and reduce duplication. Hudson's argument is that changing the technology also requires changing how departments organise their work, rather than simply installing new software.

The airline has not published a financial value for the Accenture agreement or an expected saving from the 850 affected roles. Its annual technology budget describes the scale of existing investment, while the outsourcing agreement sets a new direction for some corporate services.

How AI fits into the plan

Qantas says thousands of employees already use AI tools in their daily work. The new partnership extends that effort into the processes and data that support the airline's corporate functions.

Automation uses software to carry out defined steps, such as moving information between systems. AI can help with tasks involving language, patterns or large amounts of information. Both depend on the quality of the data and processes around them.

The company's description sets out a sequence: some services move to Accenture, delivered mostly from India, and the work is later changed further through automation and AI. Qantas says those technologies will be built into the redesigned processes from the start.

For workers, this creates two stages of adjustment. The first concerns who employs the people providing a service and where they work. The second concerns how much of that service requires people once processes have been rebuilt.

Qantas presents the partnership as a way to respond faster to technological change and give employees more time for work that benefits customers and the business. The unions are focused on the immediate consequence: hundreds of Australian positions are at risk while that investment proceeds.

What happens before the first changes?

Hudson says approximately 850 roles will be affected over the coming years, with the first changes expected by mid-2027. Employees therefore face a staged restructuring rather than a single immediate departure date.

The sequence announced so far is:

• Tuesday's announcement: Qantas outlined the Accenture partnership and the expected effect on about 850 Australian roles.
• Consultation: the airline will discuss the changes with employees and unions before finalising decisions affecting individual positions.
• By mid-2027: Qantas expects the first changes to be in place.
• Over the following years: further changes will proceed, with additional use of automation and AI over time.

Qantas has promised redeployment where possible, including into new roles in Australia. The number of employees who will secure another position, the final number of redundancies and the completion date for the full program have not been announced.

Those details will determine the practical outcome for households. An affected role can disappear while its employee moves elsewhere within the group; another employee may leave if a suitable position is unavailable.

Why unions are challenging the decision

The Australian Services Union says the announcement contradicts earlier assurances about sending work overseas. Scott Cowen, the union's assistant national secretary, described what the union says it had previously been told:

Earlier this year, Qantas told us directly there was no plan to offshore any jobs. Today, they've come out and told hundreds of staff members that their work will now be delivered mostly from people overseas,

Angus McFarland, an Australian Services Union secretary, argued that the immediate change concerned the location of work, even as Qantas discussed AI. He said:

Qantas talks endlessly about AI, but its own documents make it clear that the first step is to send Australian work to India,

McFarland said technology should improve jobs and that employees deserved investment in their skills and futures. The union's objection centres on who carries the cost of the transition and whether experienced workers can remain employed as the airline changes its systems.

Transport Workers' Union national secretary Michael Kaine also condemned the decision, citing Qantas's earlier outsourcing of ground workers and its sale of tickets for cancelled flights. His response places the corporate restructuring within a longer dispute over the airline's treatment of employees and customers.

Australian technology hiring continues elsewhere

Qantas is also expanding its Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide, which is expected to grow to more than 400 roles. The company includes that investment in its explanation of the more than AU$1 billion it spends annually on technology.

The Adelaide expansion shows that Qantas is changing the mix of its Australian workforce while transferring other services overseas. New technology positions and existing corporate roles can require different skills, experience and locations.

For affected employees, access to those opportunities will depend on the positions available and the airline's redeployment process. Qantas's commitment to find alternatives where possible makes that process a central part of the consultation with staff and unions.

The two figures also describe different things: about 850 existing roles are affected by the restructuring, while more than 400 is the planned size of the Adelaide centre. They cannot be used to calculate a final employment balance without knowing the centre's existing staffing and how many affected employees move into new positions.

Fuel costs and recent strikes add pressure

Qantas's announcement follows a market update flagging higher fares and flight reductions as fuel costs rise. Elevated oil prices linked to the Iran conflict have increased pressure on airline operating costs.

The carrier says customer demand remains resilient. It has also benefited partly from travellers switching away from airlines whose journeys involve Middle East stopovers, helping offset some of the pressure from more expensive jet fuel.

Qantas says it will continue adjusting fares and capacity in response to fuel costs. For passengers, those adjustments can mean paying more or having fewer flights available on some routes.

The employment announcement also follows industrial action at major Australian terminals during the previous month, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. Workers raised concerns about pay and safety, with most striking employees working in freight transfer rather than commercial passenger operations.

Those disputes involve different jobs from the corporate functions now targeted for restructuring. They nevertheless mean the Accenture announcement arrives during an existing period of tension between Qantas and parts of its workforce.

A wider wave of corporate restructuring

Qantas is the third major Australian company in three weeks to announce a substantial workforce restructuring, following Canva and National Australia Bank. Together, their plans affect about 4,550 corporate jobs through cuts, relocation or changes to how work is organised.

The Qantas component, at about 850 positions, represents roughly 19% of that combined figure. The total includes several kinds of employment change, so the eventual number of people leaving their employers will depend on how each company's plan develops.

Woolworths, Officeworks and Telstra have also been identified among Australian companies using overseas outsourcing arrangements or making similar organisational changes. Qantas's decision adds aviation corporate services to a wider shift in where businesses place work.

For the airline's employees, the next concrete steps are consultation and the first changes expected by mid-2027. The central issue is how many people can move into other Australian jobs as Qantas transfers services to Accenture and introduces more automation.

Key Points

• Qantas expects about 850 Australian corporate roles to be affected, starting by mid-2027 and continuing over several years.
• Finance, procurement, human resources and marketing are the initial focus.
• Accenture will deliver transferred services mostly from India, with some work in Australia.
• Qantas says automation and AI will further change the work over time.
• The airline promises consultation and redeployment where possible; final redundancy numbers remain undecided.
• Unions say the plan conflicts with earlier assurances about keeping jobs in Australia.
• Qantas spends more than AU$1 billion annually on technology and plans to grow its Adelaide innovation centre to more than 400 roles.