Qantas outsources IT to India in $147m deal

Australian airline Qantas is to outsource its IT software support and maintenance to India in a $147m deal.

The seven-year deal will be split between two of India's largest outsourcers with Tata Consultancy's share worth $90m and Satyam's worth around $57m.

The transition of services to TCS and Satyam will take 15 months and will mean the loss of up to 340 Qantas IT positions - although one-third of the work being undertaken by the Indian companies will remain onshore in Australia.

Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon said it would have required an investment of $77m for the airline to develop its in-house capability in this area to bring it up to industry best-practice standard.

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"There is an increasing concentration of suppliers with the skills we need for the ongoing support of these applications, and these suppliers are achieving a scale and efficiency that airlines like Qantas simply cannot match," he said in a statement.

The applications support and maintenance work relates to more than 300 applications that use a wide range of computer languages and technologies across ageing systems.

TCS will provide support and maintenance to all of Qantas' key IT applications for airport operations and commercial systems, while Satyam will be responsible for development and maintenance services for more than 150 applications.