Huge cuts planned at United.
United Airlines is reportedly set to furlough 36,000 employees this fall.
The devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation industry may force United to cut half its domestic workforce when federal payroll funding runs out in October.
In a statement, the Chicago-based airline said: “After months of aggressive cost-cutting and proactive capital-raising, today we updated employees about a topic we’ve always dreaded and the action that was always a last resort in the context of this COVID-19 pandemic: involuntary furloughs.
“The reality is that United simply cannot continue at our current payroll level past October 1 in an environment where travel demand is so depressed. And involuntary furloughs come as a last resort, after months of company-wide cost-cutting and capital-raising.”
United executives called the pandemic the worst crisis in the airline’s history.
The carrier expects capacity for this month to be down 75% compared to July last year.
However, some have opposed United’s decision to cut that many employees, calling it “overreaching, excessive and punitive.”
They claim the large number of cuts is intended to scare employees into accepting early retirement, extended unpaid leave and other voluntary programs.
The US government has offered $50 billion to support the aviation industry which has agreed to not lay off staff or cut pay until September 30.
United Airlines is receiving $5 billion of those funds.
[adblockingdetector id="638efa67113bf"]