American Airlines Group warned it will cut 19,000 jobs come October when federal payroll funding runs out.
If Congress does not extend emergency funding for airlines, American will go ahead with the involuntary furloughs and redundancies.
"The only problem with the legislation is that when it was enacted in March, it was assumed that by 30 September, the virus would be under control and demand for air travel would have returned. That is obviously not the case," the airline said.
If the job cuts go ahead, American Airlines will temporarily have 40,000 fewer employees than before the pandemic after thousands took early retirement or went on long term leave.
American said the cuts will be across the business with international operations impacted more heavily.
It also includes about 1,500 management jobs.
Although passenger traffic is slowly ticking up, it is still about 70% down on normal pre-pandemic levels, according to Transportation Security Administration data.
"Based on current demand levels, we now plan to fly less than 50% of our airline in the fourth quarter, with long-haul international particularly reduced to only 25% of 2019 levels," American said.
Written by Ray Montgomery, US editor
