TRAVEL
Qantas Execs Asked to Work as Baggage Handlers
Source: Qantas
Thanks to a huge labor shortage, Australian airline Qantas has asked its senior executives to work as baggage handlers for three months.
According to the BBC, Qantas is looking for execs to volunteer at Sydney and Melbourne airports in shifts of either four or six hours per day as it struggles to resume services now that Australia’s borders have reopened to tourists.
“The high levels of winter flu and a Covid spike across the community, coupled with the ongoing tight labour market, make resourcing a challenge across our industry,” Qantas’ chief operating officer Colin Hughes said in an email shared with the BBC by the company.
“There is no expectation that you will opt into this role on top of your full-time position,” the email added.
“As we have done in the past during busy periods, around 200 head office staff have helped at airports during peak travel periods since Easter,” a Qantas spokesperson told the BBC. “We’ve been clear that our operational performance has not been meeting our customers’ expectations or the standards that we expect of ourselves – and that we’ve been pulling out all stops to improve our performance.”
