Emirates Airline has said that no public announcement has been made yet in regards to claims that the group is planning to cut some 30,000 jobs in a “thorough review” of its costs amid the coronavirus crisis.
Reports earlier claimed that Emirates airline could shed 30% of its workforce, including A380 pilots, so the airline can retire its superjumbos earlier than planned.
While a spokesperson from Emirates said that no public announcement has been made regarding “redundancies at the airline”, she added that the group is conducting a review of “costs and resourcing against business projections”.
“Any such decision will be communicated in an appropriate fashion. Like any responsible business would do, our executive team has directed all departments to conduct a thorough review of costs and resourcing against business projections,” the spokesperson said.
Emirates president Sir Tim Clark said last month that the industry’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, which forms the backbone of Emirates’ fleet, ’is over in the wake of the coronavirus disaster.
Emirates Airlines has 115 A380s and has several more on order but the airline is widely known to be restructuring its fleet and will begin receiving new aircraft in 2023 to replace the massive but expensive superjumbo.
In its latest financial update, the airline said it will continue to raise debt itself to help it weather the coronavirus crisis. Dubai’s government has already pledged to inject the state-owned carrier with equity.
Emirates airline turned a profit of $288 million in its last financial year, a 21% improvement on 2018-19.
But the effects of the Covid-19 crisis hit its fourth quarter results and chairman HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement that the pandemic will “have a huge impact” on the airline’s 2020-21 performance.
“We continue to take aggressive cost management measures, and other necessary steps to safeguard our business, while planning for business resumption,” said Sheikh Ahmed.
International air travel has been hammered by the coronavirus crisis, which has decimated demand for travel. Most airlines in the world have cut jobs.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airline industry could lose $314 billion this year in revenues. The second quarter of 2020 could prove most challenge for carriers as they burn through their last cash reserves.
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