Qantas hands IT and back-office work to Accenture, putting 850 roles in scope

CEO Vanessa Hudson told staff in an all-staff email that the first changes are expected to be in place by mid-2027, starting with finance, procurement and marketing teams[2]. The Australian Services Union says people functions are in the first wave too, and wants Qantas to explain why it is offshoring roles after earlier assurances it would not[1]. Qantas says it will consult staff and unions before individual outcomes are set and will redeploy people where it can[3].

"Like every airline, we run on technology built up over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together," Hudson said[2]. Qantas spends more than A$1 billion a year on technology[3], and says Accenture will invest upfront to speed up the modernisation of its data platforms[1]. Internally the program is codenamed Project iQ, and Qantas is also building an Adelaide innovation centre that will eventually house around 400 staff[1].

The Guardian notes this is the third major corporate layoff plan announced in Australia in three weeks, after restructuring moves at Canva and National Australia Bank[4]. The pattern is becoming familiar: a large company bundles legacy clean-up, outsourcing and AI into one program, and the AI part is the promise that comes after the systems are fixed.