The Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) share price is in the red today, down 1.19%.
Qantas shares are lower in early afternoon trade but the company is not the only ASX travel share down so far today. The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price is sliding 1.79% while Webjet Ltd (ASX: WEB) shares are descending 1.55%. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is also down slightly, 0.07% lower at the time of writing.
Let's take a look at what is going on at Qantas.
Managers asked to work as ground handlers
Qantas is recruiting 100 managers and executives to work as ground handlers, The Australian reported.
The staff are to work in roles including sorting baggage and moving luggage onto the tarmac for up to three months.
In a memo to staff cited by the publication, chief operating officer Colin Hughes said:
During your time in the contingency program, you'll be an embedded resource within the ground handling partners.
This means you'll receive a roster, be scheduled to operate and be supervised and managed in the live operations by our grand handling partners.
In a market update in late June, Qantas revealed it has hired more than 1,000 operational team members and hundreds more contact centre staff since April. Qantas has received plenty of publicity in recent weeks amid ongoing flight cancellations and staff shortages.
Meanwhile, a Qantas plane was grounded on Sunday after air traffic control received reports of "flames and smoke" coming from the engine.
However, engineers later determined the emergency to be a false alarm, according to Nine. A Qantas spokesperson told the publication:
The pilots followed procedure and shut down the engine as a precaution after being alerted by the control tower while taxiing.
Engineers have inspected the aircraft and cleared it to return to service.
Last week, analysts at UBS maintained a buy rating on the Qantas share price with a $6.55 price target. This represents an almost 44% upside on the current share price of $4.56.
The broker sees value in the company's shares if the economy avoids a recession.
Qantas share price snapshot
The Qantas share price has slipped less than 1% in the past year while it is down more than 9% year to date. In comparison, the ASX 200 benchmark has lost 7% in the past year.
Qantas has a market capitalisation of about $8.58 billion based on the current share price.
