Virgin America’s new owner Alaska Air has warned there will be lay-offs of some of Virgin’s management positions.
Seattle-based Alaska notified employees that more than 200 managers will likely lose their jobs when the planned $2.6 billion acquisition is finally completed in October.
In an email, spokeswoman Halley Knigge said ‘the 225 positions are all back-office non union management positions, and represent about 8% of the Virgin America workforce.’
Alaska Air is ‘committed to preserving the jobs of all customer-facing and front-line Virgin America teammates,’ Knigge said, and more than 300 other Virgin managers will remain with the company.
Lay-offs will likely start taking effect from October 11 through June 2017, the Seattle Times reports.
Although Alaska said the Virgin America brand may survive in the long term, the two companies are expected to apply for a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration by early 2018.
That would push Alaska Air ahead of JetBlue as the fifth biggest US airline behind American, Delta, United and Southwest Airlines.
