United and American Airlines will begin the process of placing on furlough some 32,000 staff starting Thursday after discussions for a government-funded pandemic stimulus collapsed in Washington.
Doug Parker, American Airlines chief executive, said that if legislators approve a $25 billion funding for carriers in the "next few days," American – the nation's biggest airlines – will cancel a furlough involving 19,000 employees and recall them back for work. United said it is also ready to change course if a bailout package is offered.
Tens of thousands of other staff at United and American, as well as in Southwest and Delta, have agreed on buyouts or leaves of absence intended to trim workforce size as companies struggle to deal with a global health misery that has nearly crippled the global travel sector, CNBC reported.
According to Airlines for America president and chief executive Nicholas Calio, "time is running out to protect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of U.S. airline workers," The Points Guy News quoted the CEO as saying in a Sept. 28 statement.
Conditions of a $25 billion in government salary support that lawmakers passed for the suffering aviation industry last March restricts carriers from terminating workers until Oct. 1. The federal funding was aimed at providing relief to companies hounded with a huge decline in bookings until demand normalizes.
The moves by two of the U.S. four biggest carriers underscores the first - and perhaps the biggest portion - of mandatory reductions in headcount across the aviation industry in the next few days. U.S. airline companies are operating around 50 percent of their 2019 flights and losing nearly 70 percent in sales in passenger volumes.
Airline executives have said they are not anticipating travel demand to improve to levels seen last year without a coronavirus vaccine and have reiterated that the crisis is much worse compared to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
