The Dubai-based airline reported an exceptional 21% increase in annual profits in March.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates:
Emirates Airlines cut a tenth of its workforce during the new coronavirus pandemic in layoffs that could reach 15%, or 9,000 jobs, said its president, according to a report released on Saturday.
The Middle East’s largest carrier, which operates a fleet of 270 wide-body aircraft, ceased operations in late March as part of global closures to stem the spread of the virus.
He resumed two weeks later on a limited network and plans to visit 58 cities by mid-August, up from around 157 before the crisis.
However, its chairman Tim Clark said previously that it could take up to four years for operations to return to “a certain degree of normalcy,” and the airline organized rounds of layoffs as early as this week. last, without disclosing figures.
Before the crisis, Emirates employed some 60,000 people, including 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew, according to its annual report.
Clark said in a BBC interview that the airline has already cut a tenth of its staff and that Emirates “will probably have to abandon a few more, probably up to 15%”.
A company spokeswoman told AFP the airline had nothing to add to the report.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said airlines are expected to make a combined net loss of more than $ 84 billion this year as a result of the pandemic crisis, the largest in the history of the industry .
Clark said in the interview that Emirates was “not as bad as the rest” but that the crisis had hit just as it “was headed for one of our best years in history”.
The Dubai-based airline reported an exceptional 21% increase in annual profits in March.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
