United Airlines has secured $5 billion from the US government to stave off layoffs, but will almost certainly shrink the workforce when the six-month period guaranteeing no job cuts expires.
It has already started planning for job cuts from October 1, it said in a letter sent to employees.
It talked of ‘tough decisions ahead’ as ‘travel demand is essentially zero’ right now.
The letter, penned by CEO Oscar Munoz and president Scott Kirby, put the current situation in perspective.
"Less than 200,000 people flew with us during the first two weeks of April this year, compared to more than 6 million during the same time in 2019, a 97 percent drop."
It expects to ‘fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May 2019.’
"We plan for our airline, and our overall workforce, to be smaller than it is today, starting as early as October 1," they wrote.
Demand won’t recover for the summer season and the airline expects it to be ‘suppressed’ for the remainder of 2020.
