Australia's Qantas to cut 1,000 jobs

Australia's largest airline Qantas on Thursday announced it will cut at least 1,000 jobs in the coming 12 months to achieve total coast savings of 2 billion AU dollars (1.81 billion U.S. dollars) over the next three years.

In a market update released on Thursday, Qantas says it expects to report an underlying pre-tax loss of between 250 million AU dollars and 300 million AU dollars for the first half of this financial year.

The news sent the company's shares plunging by almost 17 percent to 1.00 AU dollar at 11:20 a.m. local time.

"We will do whatever we need to do to secure the Qantas Group's future," Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said in the market update.

"The challenges we now face are immense -- but we will overcome them and we will continue to build a stronger and better Qantas for Australia."

Joyce said the company had confronted a fiercely difficult operating environment since the Global Financial Crisis.

"The Australian international market is the toughest anywhere in the world," he said.

"Our competitors in the international market, almost all owned or generously supported by their governments, have increased capacity to pursue Australian dollar profits, changing the shape of the market permanently."

The airline's cost reduction program will also see Joyce and Qantas board members take a pay cut.