COVID-19: Emirates Airlines lays off more staff

Dubai’s Emirates Airlines has commenced lay-off of more pilots and cabin crew, the airline confirmed to sister title Arabian Business.

Emirates Airlines said the Covid-19 pandemic has forced it to ‘right-size’ its workforce in line with reduced operational requirements.

In a statement sent to Arabian Business, an Emirates spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are still in the process of implementing the redundancy exercise across our group, as previously communicated.

“While we have slowly restarted operations wherever it is safe and commercially viable, our footprint today is significantly smaller than before and it will take a while for us to recover to pre-pandemic levels.”

The spokesperson said Emirates was forced to let staff go because of the airline’s current reduced operations.

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“Like other airlines and travel companies, Covid-19 has hit us hard, and as a responsible business, we simply must right-size our workforce in line with our reduced operational requirements.

“Our people have always been a big contributing factor to our success, so this is not an action that we relish, nor one that we take lightly. We continue to take every possible action to reduce costs, restore revenue streams, and preserve jobs,” the spokesperson said

In early June, it was reported that the airline laid off more than 1,000 employees, including 700 cabin crew and 600 pilots, most of whom flew the superjumbo A380 aircraft or were in training for type-rating the aircraft.

“Our people have always been a big contributing factor to our success, so this is not an action that we relish, nor one that we take lightly,” the spokesperson added on Thursday. “We continue to take every possible action to reduce costs, restore revenue streams, and preserve jobs.”