Australian airline Qantas has asked its senior executives to help out as airport baggage handlers as it struggles to manage a staff shortage.
The airline has called on at least 100 senior staff to join its outsourced ground handling teams at Sydney and Melbourne airports for three months.
Executives opting into the role must also be "physically capable of moving and lifting bags of up to 32 kg in weight," Hughes said. "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," a Qantas spokesperson told CNN Business.after two years of pandemic restrictions and staff cuts.mostly affecting its corporate, ground and flight staff — as it tried to stay afloat during the height of the pandemic.
Hughes said in his note that the company planned to recruit thousands of new staff, including ground handlers.on Monday that his company was over-hiring because workers were leaving their jobs at such a high rate. Airports are having it tough, too. In July, London's Heathrow airport, one of the busiest in the world, urged airlines to