The Australian airline Qantas has requested that senior executives work as luggage handlers for three months to combat a severe labor shortage.
The chief of operations for the company is seeking at least 100 volunteers to work at Sydney and Melbourne airports.
Duties include loading and unloading baggage and driving vehicles to transport luggage across airports.
As with the rest of the global airline sector, Qantas is battling to resume operations as borders reopen.
The high levels of winter flu and a Covid rise across the population, coupled with the current tight labor market, make resourcing a problem across our industry,” said Qantas.
Mr. Hughes continued, “there is no expectation that you will accept this post in addition to your full-time position.”
The managers and executives were required to perform luggage handling duties three to five days per week, in shifts of four to six hours each day.
The statement continued by stating that applicants must be able to lift baggage weighing up to 32 kilograms each.
A Qantas representative told that “We’ve been clear that our operational performance has not met our customers’ expectations or the standards we demand of ourselves, and we’ve been pulling out all the stops to enhance our performance.”
Since Easter, some 200 head office employees have assisted at airports during peak travel periods, as they have in the past.
Qantas was among the airlines severely affected by the epidemic as governments closed their borders and grounded their aircraft.
During the epidemic, the industry laid off thousands of employees, the majority of whom were ground crew.
To reduce its financial losses, Qantas outsourced more than 2,000 ground staff positions in November 2020, on top of the thousands of job layoffs it had already announced.
The airline issued an apology last month after passengers complained about delays and lost bags.
Australia held some of the harshest Covid travel restrictions in the world, including for its residents, until November 2021, when it began to ease the restrictions.
As global efforts to halt the spread of Covid-19 have waned, Qantas and other major airlines have struggled to resume operations at pre-pandemic levels.
In addition to staff shortages, airlines and airports in the United Kingdom have experienced delays and cancellations during holiday seasons.
The lack of baggage handlers has also contributed to the accumulation of baggage in terminals.
To manage demand, airports including Heathrow have imposed a passenger cap over the summer, prompting several airlines to cancel ticket sales for particular routes.
