Last month Qantas fell out of the top five rankings for the world’s best airlines amid a massive wave of customer dissatisfaction, stemming from flight cancellations, excruciating check-in waits, spikes in mishandled baggage and passengers holding for hours to reach the airline’s under-staffed call centers.
A Qantas spokesperson told 9news.com.au there was nothing unusual about the rearrangement of staff, which workers were notified about in a recent note from chief operating officer Colin Hughes.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
“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.
“While we manage the impacts of a record flu season and ongoing COVID cases coupled with the tightest labor market in decades, we’re continuing that contingency planning across our airport operations for the next three months.”
Prior to the pandemic, Qantas’ lost baggage rate was five bags per 1000.
In July, that had moved to seven per 1000.
The airline sector has been heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and Qantas was given huge levels of financial help from the previous government, including more than $1 billion in aviation support measures and $856 million in JobKeeper.
Last month Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s sprawling $19m Sydney harborside home was targeted by vandals, who threw toilet paper and eggs at the mansion.
A century of Qantas: From outback airline to global giant