"To reject its own workers like this is spiteful and will hurt the airline deeply,"Mr Kaine said.

"Qantas has spent hundreds of millions in training these workers up over decades to achieve high standards and the idea of pushing them out the door to replace them with less trained workers on lower conditions is sickening.

"Families across Australia are now facing a grim Christmas where the future lies at the end of a Centrelink queue."

The Qantas decision affects workers at Adelaide,Alice Springs,Brisbane,Cairns,Canberra,Darwin,Melbourne,Perth,Sydney and Townsville airports. The airline already outsourced ground work at 55 smaller airports across the country.

As well as 2000 roles at Qantas to go,the group said in August its budget arm Jetstar would lay off 370 workers by outsourcing the last of its ground handling work at Adelaide,Avalon,Brisbane,Cairns,Melbourne and Sydney airports. Meanwhile,the roles of 50 bus drivers at Sydney Airport remain under review.

Like most airlines around the world,Qantas has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic which forced to it ground most of its fleet and stand down two-thirds of its staff from work,and push it to a$1.9 billion full-year loss.

The group said outsourcing the last of its ground handling work would save it about $100 million annually in costs and avoid having to spend $80 million on new equipment over the next five years.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce has announced a cost-cutting drive intended to save $15 billion over the next three years and deliver $1 billion in annual savings after that to help the carrier bounce back from the pandemic,which includespossibly moving its headquarters out of Sydney.