As talk of when the coronavirus pandemic will slow down continues, companies are gearing up for the worst. Airlines are being hit hard by the pandemic because travel has slowed down. As a result, these airliners cannot afford to keep all of their employees and many are slashing employees’ hours or letting them go.
European airlines are taking action. British Airways, Lufthansa, Ryanair, Air-France KLM, and Scandinavian Airlines could fire over 32,000 employees collectively. It is predicted that it will take several years for the industry to recover from these losses. Lufthansa has already put 80,000 employees on reduced hours. Going over to British Airways, they have said it may need to release over a quarter of their workforce. And not only that, but Ryanair has already released 3,000 employees.
According to the International Air Transport Association, global airline passenger revenue could drop as much as 55% this year, or roughly 314 billion dollars (that’s a lot of money!).
European airlines aren’t the only ones in trouble. There are four major airlines in the U.S.: American, United, Delta, and Southwest. Of these aviation titans, more than 100,000 people have agreed to take pay cuts or unpaid leave. The $25 billion bailout package prohibits airlines from making layoffs until September 30.
Planemakers and airports are being hurt by the pandemic as well. Boeing announced 16,000 job cuts and a $1.7 billion loss in the first quarter. Airbus released over 6,000 workers and said it was “bleeding cash”. Heathrow Airport, the largest airport in Europe, reported a $441 million loss for the first quarter, compared to a $128 million profit at the same time last year. It has delayed plans to expand due to expectations of passenger numbers declining by a whopping 97%.
One of the industries being hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic is the airline industry. Airlines across the world are cutting jobs to slash costs and preparing for the worst. With people staying home, airlines are losing hundreds of billions of dollars. As the pandemic slows, the airlines will recover. However, the damage done will last several years.
