Emirates Airline lays off pilots and cabin crew; plans thousands more job cuts

Emirates Airline has begun laying off pilots and cabin crew members to preserve cash during the coronavirus pandemic, the airline confirmed. According to several media, over 600 pilots and over 6,500 cabin crew members have today been informed that they will lose their jobs. And the job losses at Emirates are not over yet as next week, another round of redundancies will take place.

“After reviewing all scenarios and options, we deeply regret that we have to let some of our people go. This was a very difficult decision and not one that we took lightly,” an Emirates Airline spokesman said.

“We have been doing everything possible to retain the talented people that make up our workforce for as long as we can. However, given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to right size our workforce in line with our reduced operations.”

Reports had earlier said that the airline will lay off 30 percent of its crew and pilots. (source: Moneycontrol.com)

Emirates has also extended pay cuts until September, and in some cases deepened the reduction to 50%, according to an internal email on Sunday. (source: Reuters)