Sydney (AFP)

Australian airline Qantas announced on Thursday the loss of 6,000 jobs and the maintenance on the ground of a hundred aircraft, in order to save more than 9 billion euros and to get through the coronavirus crisis.

Managing Director Alan Joyce said the three-year restructuring plan was designed to save Australia's flagship aircraft from "the industry's worst crisis ever".

"This year was meant to be a year of celebration for Qantas, the centenary," said Joyce in a statement. "Clearly things are not going as planned."

Falling demand had already forced Qantas to suspend all its international flights until October, except those to New Zealand.

Domestic traffic is starting again because the majority of Australian states have managed to contain the epidemic. But international borders are expected to remain closed to the majority of foreign passengers until next year.

And a resurgence of cases in Melbourne, the country's second city, reminded us that the threat of the coronavirus remained very real.

"We have to put ourselves in position for several years when the turnover will be much lower. And that means becoming a smaller company in the short term," said Mr. Joyce, commenting on the near elimination of a position on five. The company currently employs 29,000 people.

- "Not much latitude" -

In addition to the $ 15 billion in savings, the "post-Covid recovery plan" plans to raise $ 1.9 billion (1.16 billion euros) in stocks.

The group announced that the contract for Joyce, the country's highest-paid general manager, will be extended until the plan is completed.

The job cuts will affect Qantas and its "low cost" subsidiary Jetstar. In total, 15,000 workers have been unemployed since March. The group hopes that half of them will have returned to work by the end of the year.

Joyce acknowledged "the huge impact" of the recovery plan "for thousands of people".

"Losing billions of dollars in revenue doesn't give us much leeway," he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose Conservative government has released billions of Australian dollars to try to reduce the economic impact of the crisis, said the job cuts at Qantas were "heartbreaking." "These are tough days for Australia," he said at a press conference.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the country's main trade union organization, denounced Qantas' plan by calling on Morrison to extend the "JobKeeper" aid program which allows companies to continue to pay part of the wages despite reduced activity linked to the coronavirus.

"If it is possible to keep Alan Joyce's job, why can't we negotiate with the unions to keep JobKeeper to save these jobs?" Said CUTA President Michele O'Neil.

Of the 150 aircraft grounded by Qantas in March, 100 will remain grounded for up to a year, including all A380s in the fleet, Qantas said. The company also postponed new orders for Airbus A321neo and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

She said she was reasonably optimistic about her future. "Almost two-thirds of our pre-crisis profits came from the domestic market, which is likely to recover as quickly as possible," said Joyce. "We are number one on conventional and low-cost routes in Australia, where distances make air transportation essential."

Its only Australian competitor, Virgin Australia, went into default in April, and is talking to two potential buyers, Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners.

© 2020 AFP