United Airlines UAL this weekend began the process by which it could eliminate the jobs of more than a third of its 12,250 pilots as soon as Oct. 1.
And the airline’s chief pilot warned that unless travel demand rebounds this summer much stronger than they anticipate, a lot more pilots could be pushed into the unemployment lines, along with corresponding numbers of mechanics, flight attendants, ground workers, administrative staff and managers.
United on Saturday sent its pilots an email announcing a bid for work slots effective June 30 that involves the “displacement” of 4,457 positions.That makes United the first U.S. airline to disclose its staff reduction plans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its staggering impact on travel. United, like nearly all U.S. carriers, received large grants and low interest loans from the federal government aimed at keeping their staff employed across the summer and ready for a swift return of travel demand. United’s share of those grants and loans totaled about $5 billion, roughly half of which already has been received with balance to arrive in a few weeks.
Now, a quick rebound in travel appears highly unlikely.
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9 comments:
Times will be hard on the industry for years. People will be leery of group travel and venues until the fear for safety wears off.
The Air Force is hiring..
And their planes are a LOT more fun to fly!
The Donald really F**cked up this time.
Rumors are swirling at Piedmont that American is going to scuttle Piedmont Airlines and is merging their pilots into Envoy and PSA.
You might be the biggest horse's ass that has ever put a comment on this site.
4:53 PM - How?
Airline inventory of seats is highly volatile. There are either folks in the seat when the plane takes off or not.
Until this crisis there were notable shortages of skilled airline employees, mainly pilots and mechanics due to double whammy of expanding business and lots of pilots & mechanics reaching retirement age.
Layoffs will cut their newest employees in these jobs, and the senior employees will still retire on schedule. Laid off staff will eventually be called back but will need expensive FAA required training before actually working again.
They'd be smarter to offer some retirement incentives, and some big blocks of Leave Without Pay as a first step. Flying with every other seat empty and masked passengers isn't a viable path forward.
It will be interesting.
Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway dumped all their Airline holdings yesterday.
One of the classic truisms about aviation: "If you want to make a small fortune in aviation, start with a large one."
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