American Airlines will furlough 19,000 employees in October, unless it gets more aid

American Airlines would lay off 19,000 workers in October if it did not receive new aid, the airline said in a memo to staff on Tuesday, putting further pressure on the U.S. Administration for a new plan to support air transport.

The furloughs include 17,500 front-line employees, as well as 1,500 management and support workers, whose furloughs were announced in late June. About 1,600 pilots, 8,100 flight attendants, and 2,225 fleet service specialists are included in the front-line furloughs.

In March, the airlines got a total of $25 billion from the government (of which $5.8 billion for American) at the condition that they would not to jobs until 30 September, a date at which it was thought the virus would be under control and demand for airline tickets would have returned. That is obviously not the case!

Since then, 12,500 employees have taken early retirement or other buyout packages and 11,000 have offered to take voluntary unpaid leave. But this is not enough in the face of the company’s downturn in business: American Airlines plans to fly only 50% of its capacity in the fourth quarter, with international long-haul flights particularly affected at only 25% of previous year.

Therefore, American Airlines, which had 130,000 full-time equivalent employees at the end of March, needs 40,000 fewer people in October.

Delta Air Lines announced Monday that more than 1,900 pilots will be furloughed.