By Chidinma Ufomadu
Emirates Airlines have laid off a tenth of its staff and explains that there could be a 15% rise in the layoff as a result of the pandemic.
President, Tim Clark, explained that a tenth of its labour force has been cut and the layoffs could rise to 15%, which is equivalent to 9,000 jobs.
The airline, due to the global pandemic, which led to a global shutdown as a means to help curb the spread of the virus, stopped operations late March.
It operates a fleet of 270 wide-bodies aircraft, and is the largest Middle East’s carrier.
The airline planned to fly to 157 cities by mid-August before the pandemic, but on its resumption 2 weeks after the global shutdown, have reduced its network and plans to fly to 58 cities.
However, Tim earlier explained that it could take about a period of four years for operations to come back to “some degree of normality” while engaging in the layoff of their workforce without revealing numbers.
According to its annual report, Emirate Airline employed 22,000 cabin crew, 4,300 pilots, which was included amongst the 60,000 new staff prior to the pandemic.
During an interview with BBC, Tim explained that the airline had already cut a tenth of its staff and that Emirates “will probably have to let go of a few more, probably up to 15 percent”.
A company spokeswoman told AFP that the airline had nothing to add to the report.
It can be recalled that the International Air Transport Association predicted that airlines would make a combined net loss of more than $84 billion in 2020 as an effect from the pandemic, which is the biggest in the history of the industry.
Tim further explained during the interview that the airline was “not as badly off as others” but that the crisis hit just as it was “heading for one of our best years ever”.
Earlier in March the Dubai-based airline had reported a bumper 21% rise in annual profits.
