Qatar Airways warns employees of 'substantial' lay-offs
Qatar Airways has warned its employees of "substantial" job losses while air travel demand plunges following a coronavirus outbreak, according to an interior memo sent on May 4.
The Gulf airline, which flew to a lot more than 170 destinations with 234 aircraft as of March, has been hit by airport closures and travel bans imposed to support the spread of COVID-19.
The International Air Transport Association warned last month that air traffic in the centre East and North Africa would plummet by more than half this year.
"The simple truth is, we simply cannot sustain the current staff numbers and can need to make a considerable number of jobs redundant - including cabin crew," Abkar al-Baker, LEADER, Qatar Airways wrote in the memo to cabin crew.
The note did not specify how many of its over 30,000 staff were vulnerable to redundancy, although the airline has already established to slash its passenger services to just 35 destinations.
"The unparallelled effect on our industry has caused significant challenges for all airlines and we should act decisively to safeguard the continuing future of our business," the airline said in a statement.
"Consequently, Qatar Airways can concur that the airline will make numerous roles redundant as a result of impact of COVID-19. Any job loss is regrettable and we will be working closely with all afflicted employees to offer our full support during this difficult time."
