Emirates airline 'planning to lay off 30,000 staff' after grim financial forecast

The Emirates Group is set to let go of around 30,000 employees to cut costs during the coronavirus pandemic, reducing its workforce by approximately 30 percent, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The air travel giant will see its staff shrink to around 75,000, from more than 105,000 at the end of March, said the report on Sunday.

The airline is also looking at accelerating the retirement of its fleet of A380 super jumbo jets - the world's largest passenger airliner.

A spokesperson said that Emirates Group is currently reviewing "costs and resourcing against business projections", but added that no public announcement has been made yet regarding redundancies.

"Any such decision will be communicated in an appropriate fashion. Like any responsible business would do, our executive team has directed all departments to conduct a thorough review of costs and resourcing against business projections," the spokesperson said.

The government of Dubai, whose economy heavily depends on aviation and tourism, said last month it would inject capital into the Emirate-state-owned airline to help it overcome the impact of coronavirus.

Despite reporting bumper pre-pandemic profits for its financial year ending on 31 March, the airline said the pandemic had hit its fourth-quarter performance.

The airline suspended regular passenger flights on 22 March due to the dramatic fall in global travel demand. It has since resumed limited passenger flights.

It has also said it would take at least 18 months for demand to return to "a semblance of normality".



Agencies contributed to this report.

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