SYDNEY (Reuters) – Money-strapped Qantas Airways Ltd on Wednesday launched a spread of expensive athleisure garments as its newest revenue-raising scheme to assist climate the coronavirus pandemic.
The branded vary contains A$150 ($107.46) T-shirts and A$425 cashmere sweaters designed by Australian Martin Grant, and comes after latest sold-out gross sales of bar carts from retired Boeing Co 747 planes and enterprise class pajamas and amenity kits.
Qantas has grounded the majority of its fleet and raised fairness and debt to spice up liquidity in the course of the pandemic, which has seen it announce plans to chop practically 30% of its workforce. It’s bracing for a A$10 billion hit to income this monetary yr due to border closures and decrease journey demand.
On Saturday, 150 passengers joined a “flight to nowhere” that took off from Sydney and flew over iconic locations just like the Nice Barrier Reef and Uluru earlier than returning to the identical airport.
The sightseeing flight adopted comparable revenue-raising initiatives by Asian carriers together with Japan’s ANA Holdings and Taiwan’s EVA Airways Corp.
Singapore Airways Ltd has turned grounded Airbus SE A380 jumbo jets right into a pop-up restaurant and provided home-delivered airplane meals, whereas Thai Airways Worldwide PCL remodeled the cafeteria of its Bangkok headquarters into an airline-themed restaurant.
($1 = 1.3959 Australian {dollars})
Reporting by Jamie Freed. Enhancing by Gerry Doyle
