Over 70,000 airline jobs in risk as pandemic relief expires

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Thousands of airline staffs are anxious since the expiry of the coronavirus relief supported by the CARES Act. Pilot union president stated that they have very less time. And US airlines have cautioned their staff about downsizing of a minimum of 75,000 employees owing to limited travels or airlines restriction. Employee jobs are at a risk, and the industry is trying hard to survive through the coronavirus pandemic times.

Steep drop in the passenger volumes which is still down 71% compared to other previous years have further forced experts to rethink contingency strategies for airline services and some even   predicted that it is unlikely they will return to prepandemic levels until 2024.

The airline unions are requesting for an extension of the payroll support program, however the lawmakers along with the White House are yet to confirm the new policies. In the past few months four of the biggest airlines of US lost over an amount of $10 million jointly. Rising coronavirus cases further affected the business which was moving at a slow pace in May and June. Unfortunately rise of cases led to state quarantine decisions which further led to trouble and now chances of recovery are negligible.

 According to JetBlue President and COO Joanna Geraghty the chances of the recovery of airlines business is bleak since most businesses are closed due to high infection rate, and travel and tourism is also minimal in the first quarter of the year.

Initially in the past few months, however, companies have avoided downsizing by incorporating several other cost-cutting measures, such as reducing salary, discontinuing purchase of the non-essentials, reducing domestic capacity and etc. however, even after this, now the US airlines made it official that they will need to be smaller airlines to survive.

About 20% of the Delta’s workforce that is over 17,000 employees has accepted early retirement offers and thousands have agreed to accept voluntary unpaid leaves.

The union agents have been urging Congress to provide an additional $32 billion in aid that would prohibit involuntary layoffs until the end of March.

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