Long-haul airline Qatar Airways has announced it would lay off workers as widespread travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic have largely crippled the global aviation market.
No concrete figures were laid down by the Doha-based airline, but an internal memo from its chief executive officer leaked online on Wednesday revealed the number of workers who will lose their jobs would be very "substantial" and would include members of the airline's cabin personnel.
CEO Akbar Al Baker notified his workers and warned about the job cuts, but he didn't specify how many were affected. Qatar Airways said it needed to take decisive action to protect the company's future.
The aviation industry is facing one of the hardest times ever, with many carriers on the verge of collapse.
"Truth is, we simply can't sustain the current number of employees and will need to make a substantial number of jobs, including cabin crew, redundant," Baker wrote in an internal memo.
Both Qatar Airways and Al Baker said that once global aviation emerges from the pandemic, the airline hoped to rehire personnel quickly.
Later Wednesday the airline said it hoped that by the end of May it will expand about 30 connections still flying to more than 50 and 80 by end of June. The airline said it flew into over 160 destinations a day before the outbreak.
One of the few global carriers still operating scheduled flights, the government-owned carrier said it was burning through its capital reserves in March and would eventually request government assistance.
Affected workers would be paid their contracted wages and any overtime owed, the notice said, and those who are unable to return to their home country immediately will be provided with accommodation and living allowance before such a return is possible.
Qatar Airways Group, which includes the carrier among its vital assets, had 46,684 workers at end of the airline's latest posted financial year in March last year.
Qatar Airways, which started flying in 1994, has a fleet of over 200 planes flying out of Doha's recently constructed Hamad International Airport.
The carrier competes with Abu Dhabi-headquartered Etihad Airways and Dubai-based Emirates, the two other government-owned carriers now being hounded by a gloomy economic situation caused by widespread lockdowns.
As with other Gulf airlines, Qatar Airways has flown repatriation flights since the pandemic, as well as stepped up its cargo operations.
But the crisis has battered the aviation industry to the point that in a recent conference call, Emirates President Tim Clark warned that 85 percent of all airlines will be insolvent within two or three months without state bailout.
