Plummeting profits and declining freight and passenger traffic will see Qantas Airways slash as many as 1750 jobs, sell aircraft and defer its order for four Airbus A380 superjumbos. Qantas announced plans earlier this week to cut about 500 management positions and confirmed it was considering a further 1,250 redundancies out of a company-wide total of more than 34,000. Last year the carrier already cut 1,500 jobs. Qantas employees will also be asked to take long service leave, work part time and take leave without pay in a bid to avoid further cuts. The airline said it had revised before-tax profit forecasts down from A$500 million to between $100 and $200 million because of falling demand. ”Qantas revenues have come under severe pressure, so it would be irresponsible to rely solely on stimulating demand through attractive pricing, given the potential for unprecedented reductions in yield,” said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. ”Further capacity cuts will be made to Qantas Airlines and our freight business, on both international and domestic routes. We will ground additional aircraft and defer some aircraft orders, as well as maintaining a freeze on further capital expenditure.”