Dubai-based airline, Emirates, has sacked 600 pilots on June 9. This is considered as the largest layoffs in the airline industry, stated Moneycontrol. The airline started this process on May 31.
In the early rounds, the airline carrier had sacked about 180 pilots. But by the end of June 9, the numbers crossed to 790. This includes Indian pilots, some of them who had recently joined Emirates from IndiGo, the country's largest carrier.
The pilots sacked on June 9 were first officers who were under training for type-rating on the A380. The pilots were on probation, stated the report.
"Most of the pilots fired by Emirates on June 9 are on its A380 fleet," said a senior industry executive.
The carrier has maintained that the company is doing everything possible to retain the talented people that make up its workforce for as long as it can. “However, 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,” Emirates stated. Emirates has emerged as the world's biggest operator of the jumbo A380 aircraft.
It is estimated that the airline may lay off around 30,000 of its employees which includes pilots and cabin crews, due to the pandemic.
Airline industry is worst hit due to the pandemic and the last one to recover post the pandemic. On Tuesday, the International Air Transport Association stated the carriers will lose a combined USD 84 billion this year and almost USD 16 billion in 2021, due to travel restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 . This is expected to be three times worse than the 2008-2009 recession levels.
