Qantas tells staff 850 office jobs will go to Accenture, mostly in India, and blames the speed of AI

Qantas is moving a large slice of its head-office work offshore. Australia’s largest airline told staff by email on Tuesday morning that about 850 corporate roles will be affected under a multi-year partnership with Accenture, with most of the work to be delivered by Accenture’s teams in India.

The first phase covers finance, procurement, human resources and marketing. Some roles will stay in Australia. Qantas says the first changes are expected to be in place by mid-2027, with more to follow over the coming years.

“I know this is hard news for some,” Ms Hudson wrote to staff, apologising for the uncertainty the change brings.

Why is Qantas doing this?

The airline puts it down to technology. Ms Hudson told staff the changes were about modernising the technology behind the business and becoming more efficient, so Qantas can keep investing in customers, staff and its future. She pointed to clunky back-office workflows and to the pace of change in artificial intelligence, which she described as something none of them had seen in their lifetime.

Qantas says Accenture and the airline will redesign and simplify its corporate functions together. Once the work moves, it is to be “transformed further with automation and AI”, the company said. Qantas says it spends more than $1 billion a year on technology, that thousands of its employees already use AI tools, and that its Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide is set to grow to more than 400 roles.

Who is affected, and when will they know?

Not yet. Qantas says individual outcomes have not been decided and that it will consult the people affected. The 850 figure is spread over several years rather than a single round, and some of it is expected to come through redundancies.

Talks between Qantas and Accenture were first reported in August, when Accenture representatives were sent to India for discussions. Tuesday’s email is the company’s own confirmation of the deal and its scale.

Why does this land now?

The airline is under cost pressure. In August Qantas reported a net profit of $1.3 billion for 2025-26, down 19.8%, with underlying pre-tax profit down 13.8% to $2.1 billion even as revenue rose 7.1% to $25.5 billion. A jet fuel bill that ran $610 million over budget took about $420 million off its annual profit, and the airline cancelled a planned $150 million share buyback and has warned that fares could rise in 2027.

Back-office work is a cost an airline can move without touching planes, crews or airports, and large Australian companies in other industries have sent similar work offshore before. What stands out is that Qantas is openly tying it to AI: the work is going to India first, and then, in Qantas’s own words, to automation.

Has Qantas done this before?

Yes, and it ended badly. In November 2020, during the pandemic, the airline outsourced its ground handling at 10 Australian airports, affecting about 1,700 workers. The Federal Court found the move breached the Fair Work Act because Qantas chose outsourcing partly to avoid future industrial action, and in September 2023 the High Court unanimously upheld that finding. The case then turned to compensation for the sacked workers.

Tuesday’s move is different in kind: these are corporate roles, the company says it will consult first, and no one has yet claimed the plan breaches workplace law. But the memory will shape how unions and staff respond.

What does it mean for passengers?

Nothing immediate. The roles are in head office, not in the cabin, cockpit or airport, and Qantas has given no sign that customer-facing staff are part of this phase. The airline’s argument is that cheaper, faster back-office systems free up money for planes, lounges and its app.