United Airlines says it will go ahead with plans to furlough thousands of workers next month.
It will furlough roughly 16,000 employees, down on its earlier estimate of up to 36,000, thanks to thousands of employees taking early retirement, buyouts or long-term unpaid leave.
This is still going on, so the final number of furloughs could still be lower, United said.
All the job cuts can be still be avoided if a second round of federal payroll assistance is agreed before the end of the month.
There has been no progress in Congress but President Trump said this week he would ‘help the airlines.’
The planned furloughs include nearly 7,000 flight attendants and about 2,850 pilots.
Another 2,000 of the total are maintenance workers.
Before the pandemic, United had a workforce of about 96,000.
American Airlines recently said it plans to furlough or permanently cut about 19,000 workers from early October.
Written by Ray Montgomery, US editor
