The American Airlines Group has warned its employees, that it is overstaffed by 8000 flight attendants, and the company is looking to reduce its workforce through early retirements and voluntary leaves as the American carrier is looking to improve its business, which is now strongly hit by the pandemic situation.
According to Jill Surdek, the Vice President of flight service, the company will reduce its transcontinental and international crew to the minimum required by FAA, effective from 1st October 2020.
“While we hope our customers continue returning to the skies in the coming months, the reality is that this pandemic has changed our business for years to come,” Surdek said.
According to the airlines company, it would initiate an early-out program in order to minimize the need for furlough. Even last week American Airlines said avoiding furlough would be tough and the company expects to have between 10% – 20% more workers than needed in July 2021.
Also, the company said on Wednesday, it expects its summer 2021 long-haul international capacity to be down as much as 25%, when compared to 2019, which is mostly to the panic created by COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 has forced us to re-evaluate our network,” Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja said, adding that the company will have a significantly smaller international network in the year ahead.
Previously in March 2020, the airlines had initiated a phased suspension of most of the long haul international flights, due to the ongoing pandemic situation.
American Airlines
