In the first official disclosure made on the number of layoffs, president of Emirates airline has revealed that as many as 9,000 employees are set to lose their jobs due to muted business amid the pandemic. Sir Tim Clark told BBC that the airline had already cut a tenth of its staff but said: "We will probably have to let go of a few more, probably up to 15 per cent."
Earlier, reports had pegged the number of layoffs at "a third of the staff from pre-COVID levels."
However, Clark added that Emirates was "not as badly off as others". The report said that at least 700 of the airline's 4,500 pilots were given redundancy notices this week, which means at least 1,200 have been told their jobs are going since the coronavirus crisis started.
The cuts have been focussed on those who fly Airbus planes, rather than Boeing aircraft. Emirates, which operates a fleet of 270 wide-bodied aircraft, is Middle East's largest carrier. It halted operations in late March as part of global shutdowns to stem the spread of the virus.
It resumed two weeks later on a limited network and plans to fly to 58 cities by mid-August, down from about 157 before the crisis.
However, according to Clark it could take up to four years for operations to return to "some degree of normality".
According to reports in June, the airline had also gone for a 50 per cent pay cut for employees grade four and above, including those in equivalent grades, from July 1 till September 30.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that airlines are in line to make a combined net loss of more than $84 billion this year in the wake of the pandemic crisis, the biggest in the industry's history.
