Qantas Airways asks senior execs to handle airport baggage amid staff shortage

Like many airlines worldwide, Australian carrier Qantas Airways is currently experiencing a crippling staff shortage, and it has led to some serious employee pivoting.

According to a CNN Business report published on Monday, Qantas Airways called on its senior executives and ask them to help out with baggage handling at airports in Sydney and Melbourne.

This request has been going out for around three months, and at least 100 staffers have gone from their regular roles at the company to help manage and scan baggage full-time instead.

CNN Business obtained a note that was sent to Qantas Airways staff by CEO Colin Hughes, in which he said that the high levels of winter flu and COVID-19, coupled with a tight labour market, have created resourcing challenges for the commercial aviation industry.

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Employees have not been ordered to switch their roles. They have the option to accept the “temporary arrangement.”

Hughes told the execs that those wishing to switch to this arrangement must be “physically capable of moving and lifting bags of up to 32 kg (71 pounds) in weight.”

In 2019, Qantas Airways launched the world’s first zero-waste flight. The year following, it nabbed the top spot as the world’s safest airline. But things began to go downhill pretty quickly.

In August of 2021, Qantas furloughed around 2,500 employees for two months — a total of 6,000 employees had already been furloughed before this due to the pandemic.