American Airlines has announced that unless there is further governmental aid provided, when the current government stimulus runs out at the end of September, it will be foced to shed 19,000 of its March 140,000-strong workforce. By the end of October, taking into account voluntary exits and retirments, staffing levels at American Airlines will shrink to around 100,000, an overall drop of 40,000 jobs.
‘In short, American’s team will have at least 40,000 fewer people working October 1 than we had when we entered this pandemic,’ Chief Executive Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said in a memo reported by Reuters news agency. Currently, Amarican Airlines plans to operate at below 50% of its pre-pandemic capacity on domestic routes, and below 25% for international ones.
The news comes just a week after the carrier announced it will stop flying to 15 U.S. cities at the end of September when federal requirements to serve those cities also ends, including Springfield, Illinois; Huntington, West Virginia; Del Rio, Texas.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines (Delta) announced on Monday that it intends to furlough 1,941 pilots in October. “We are six months into this pandemic and only 25% of our revenues have been recovered. Unfortunately, we see few catalysts over the next six months to meaningful change this trajectory,” Delta’s head of flight operations John Laughter said in the memo, adding that the carrier was: “simply overstaffed.” Delta has tried to avoid furloughs though the offer of attractive retirement packages to those who have been with the carrier for over 25 years, as well as buyout and voluntary exit programs, but insufficient numbers have opted to take advantage of these offers.
