Australia: Qantas to cut back routes, jobs.

QANTAS has raised the prospect of further route cuts, even higher fares and the grounding of more aircraft if the price of jet fuel continues to climb.

The airline, which is embroiled in damaging industrial disputes with key parts of its workforce over wage claims, said yesterday that it could take out as much as 14 per cent of its flying capacity to try to alleviate the financial damage of surging fuel costs.

About a third of Qantas’s costs are taken up by fuel, the price of which has more than doubled in the past 12 months.

Like its international and domestic counterparts, Qantas has been trimming costs by reducing flights on unprofitable routes, cutting seat capacity, increasing fuel surcharges and taking an axe to destinations and jobs.

Sydney Morning Herald