Qantas will cull 340 technology jobs over the next 15 months as it offshores applications support and maintenance to Indian services companies Satyam and Tata Consulting.
Qantas chief executive officer, Geoff Dixon, said the airline could not justify the AU$100 million it would cost to develop its in-house IT skills to industry best practice standard.
"There is an increasing concentration of suppliers with the skills we need for the ongoing support of these applications, and these suppliers are achieving a scale and efficiency that airlines like Qantas simply cannot match," he said.
"The applications support and maintenance work relates to over 300 applications that use a wide range of computer languages and technologies.
"Much of this work involves ageing systems."
The transition to Satyam and Tata will start in November.
Two-thirds of the Qantas IT work would be offshored, according to Dixon.
The announcement follows Qantas annual general meeting in Sydney. The airline posted an after-tax profit of AU$763.6 million, an increase of 17.8 percent on last year.
Mabey they should change their song from I still call Australia home to I still call India home. What is the point of having the government creating new positions in university for IT courses when they sit back on their hands and let the jobs disappear. What is the difference between a farmer being forced of his land because of the drought and a IT worker being sacked? Thank you Qantas for being a Big Australian I am proud of you.