Qantas confirmed it will permanently close service desks at airports across Australia from early 2021; waiting until after Christmas to shed at least 100 staff. The news was first was circulated to staff in a note on Thursday, 5 November.
Qantas says the move is customer driven.
"More people are choosing to self-manage their bookings, check in and boarding processes," Qantas' executive manager of airports, Colin Hughes, said in a note sent to staff and seen by The Age.
Curiously though, staff are being removed from sales and service desks, not check in desks.
Australian Services Union Assistant National Secretary Emiline Gaske asserts that “Whatever can be put online without massive disruption to passengers has already been done. What they’re removing now is the ‘last resort’ customer service people need when all else fails. These are absolutely essential workers and without them, travel is going to be a very tricky experience for passengers."
Qantas maintains lost luggage service desks will be manned on reduced hours, and a "team" will be available at "flight sensitive" times. "We will no longer have a dedicated service desk (including in our lounges), however we will have a team available at the airport to support time sensitive flight management and exceptions," the note says.
Customers will not be able to buy a ticket at the airport, and will "self-manage non-urgent fares and ticketing through qantas.com and will have a direct phone line to contact centres for urgent queries."
Kym Anderson
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