Emirates, one of the world’s biggest long-haul carrier, laid off hundreds of employees on Tuesday in another round of redundancies, joining its global peers in becoming leaner to cope with the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated air travel demand.
This comes as the aviation industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned on Tuesday that, worldwide, airlines would suffer record losses this year as a result of a crisis with “no comparison”.
“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,” an Emirates spokeswoman said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “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.”
Emirates, which employs more than 60,000 people, did not reveal the number of staff it let go or specify the departments that would be affected. Emirates has reduced wages and grounded most of its passenger fleet to preserve cash during the crisis that has resulted in massive losses for the global aviation industry.
Global airlines will suffer a record net loss of $84.3 billion (Dh309.6bn) this year, more than double the $31bn in loss incurred during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, according to the latest forecast made on Tuesday by IATA.
“The losses this year will be the biggest in aviation history,” Alexandre de Juniac, director general of IATA, told reporters on a web conference call. “There is no comparison for the dimension of this crisis.”
Airlines’ annual loss will narrow to about $15.8bn in 2021, the industry body representing some 280 carriers said.
