L’Echo and De Tijd: “Some 200 jobs threatened at Brussels Airlines”

The CEO of Eurowings Thorsten Dirks said last February that synergies would be operated between the two airlines of the Eurowings Group. This is now about to happen.

Brussels Airlines and Eurowings are expected to cut nearly 250 jobs, including about three quarters at Brussels Airlines in Brussels and the rest in Cologne (headquarters of Eurowings), according to financial newspapers L’Echo and De Tijd.

Job cuts are related to the integration of the Belgian company into Eurowings, Lufthansa’s low-cost airline. Job losses should mainly affect general services (accounting, sales, reservation systems, etc.). At Brussels Airlines, the changes are expected to affect some 200 workers out of 3,500, say the newspapers based on sources close to the case.

The management, which refuses to comment on the figures, recalls that the boss of Eurowings had indicated last February that synergies would be made between the two airlines, without giving guarantees on jobs. Brussels Airlines says it is hiring staff. Nevertheless, some workers of Brussels Airlines would already be engaged in a redeployment procedure, their post being made redundant. They have between two and four months to find a new job on a re-employment platform. Individual departures have already taken place, writes L’Echo.