Tag: corona virus crisis in aviation industry

Delta Air Lines told pilots on Friday that it would avoid furloughs if they agreed to reduced guaranteed minimum pay, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Delta is still struggling due to a dramatic decline in travel demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This week it reported second quarter revenue fell 91 per cent and a US$3.9 billion adjusted pre-tax loss. The airline is working to further cut costs and more than 17,000 employees are taking voluntary departure packages, including more than 1,700 of 7,900 pilots ahead of a Sunday deadline for pilots to accept voluntary packages, Reuters said ... Read more

Air India has decided to allow its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) to recommend that a non-performing staff member be compulsorily sent on leave without pay for a period of up to five years. Employees will be assessed by a board in the following categories: Suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy. Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal can now send employees on leave without pay “for six months or for a period of two years extendable ... Read more

Two pilot wings of national carrier Air India — Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) — have written a letter to the airline’s Chairman and MD (CMD) Rajiv Bansal, mentioning steps that should be taken to secure the survival of Air India. “Presently, the management has resorted to an across the board 10% cut on allowances. While prima facie appearing to be fair, this scheme distributes the financial burden across the various categories of employees in an extremely discriminatory manner amounting to treating unequal people equally,” said the pilots in the letter. The letter suggested that ... Read more

India’s largest domestic carrier IndiGo on Tuesday introduced an additional 5.5 days of “leave without pay” per month for its pilots, effective July. IndiGo had implemented one to five days of leave without pay in May. The new move will effectively take the total number of “no pay days” to ten. The carrier has also implemented fresh salary cuts for some of the pilots. “There will also be a salary revision for under training transition captains and transition first officers and that would be communicated by the HR team,” the airline stated. The airline will review the leave without pay ... Read more

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has slammed the decision of the UK government to make travellers arriving in the UK, undergo a 14-day quarantine. This will cost millions of tourism jobs, he warned. He said his airline is experiencing a “collapse of inward bookings” for flights this summer, because people are being told to self-isolate for 14 days under government measures that came into effect on Monday. The British government is looking to guard against a second wave of coronavirus. All passengers, bar a handful of exemptions, now have to fill out an online locator form giving their contact and travel ... Read more

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have called for support from governments to the aviation industry, to protect jobs and ensure that air services can be maintained. The economic situation facing the aviation industry is severe. Air passenger demand is down 80%. Airlines are facing a liquidity crisis which threatens the viability of 25 million jobs directly and indirectly dependent upon aviation, including jobs in the tourism and hospitality sectors. In a joint statement ITF and IATA called for governments to: Ensure that the protection of health workers caring for those with COVID-19 ... Read more

The air travel industry has its first major victim. Virgin Australia has said that it has entered voluntary administration, making it Australia’s first big corporate casualty after the coronavirus outbreak. Voluntary administration as a legal concept is equivalent to filing for bankruptcy. The country’s second-largest carrier had cut almost all flights last month following wide-spread travel bans. It was already struggling with a long-term A$5bn (£2.55bn; $3.17bn) debt. The airline is now seeking new buyers and investors, after failing to get a loan from Australia’s government. Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah said: “Our decision today is about securing the ... Read more