Airlines including Kuwait Airways cut thousands of jobs due to coronavirus

United Airlines (UAL) has warned some of its staff that the airline will sharply reduce hours and staffing in the months to come.

In a memo that went out to about 11,500 workers, Kate Gebo, United Airlines' (UAL) head of human resources, said the company's management and administrative team could be reduced by 30% in October after funding from the US government's CARES Act runs out.

Executives from all of the nation's major airlines have said they expect the severe downturn in passenger demand will stretch into next year, and that it will take years for traffic to return to 2019 levels. So they have all signaled they will need to be smaller long-term. The United statement to its nonunion employees is the first indication from any of the airlines as to how deep the staff cuts will be.

In addition to the future layoffs, the airline is requiring these nonunion workers to take 20 unpaid days off. Some are being asked to work a four-day work week.

"The reality we are faced with, especially heading into what would normally be our busiest time of year, is daunting to say the least," Gebo wrote.The airlines have already requested that workers take voluntary unpaid or low-paid leaves. About 100,000 workers at the four largest carriers -- American (AAL), United, Delta (DAL) and Southwest -- have done so, equal to about 26% of those companies' staffs at the end of 2019.
Kuwait Airways will lay off 1,500 foreign employees due to the impact on its business by the coronavirus pandemic, the state-owned airline said on Thursday.
The job cuts will affect non-Kuwaiti employees and be across the airline, it said in a tweet, without disclosing which departments the lay-offs would come for.
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas earlier reported the airline was cutting 25% of its 6,000 workforce, though employees holding Kuwaiti or Gulf citizenship would not be laid off.
The newspaper also said employees married to Kuwaitis would be safe from the job cuts.

• Air Canada will lay off 5,100 members of its cabin crew, about half of its current roster, as its planned flights for April have been cut by nearly 80%.
• Air New Zealand will let 3,500 workers go, equaling about one-third of its workforce.
• Avis Car Rental Boston’s Logan International Airport reportedly laid off an undisclosed number of workers.
• Boeing laid off 6,770 workers after announcing in April it would eliminate 10% of its workforce, reportedly through voluntary layoffs, natural turnover and involuntary layoffs.
• Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of car renters Enterprise, National and Alamo laid off 743 workers in North Carolina.
• Flight Centre, Australia’s largest travel agent, is laying off and putting on leave a third of its 20,000 employees.
• Helloworld Travel, an Australian travel agent, let 275 employees go.
• Car rental company Hertz plans to lay off 10,000 workers from its North American business.
• Ridesharing company Lyft let 982 workers go, an elimination of 17% of its workforce; an additional 288 were furloughed.
• Norwegian Air said that it would temporarily lay off up to 50% of its workforce, meaning 7,300 workers, and suspend 4,000 flights due to the pandemic.
• Scandinavian Airlines said Sunday it will temporarily lay off 10,000 employees, equal to 90% of their staff.
• Stena Line, a European ferry operator, announced that 950 jobs would be cut in Sweden due to a sharp decline in travel bookings.
• Canadian airline and travel company Transat AT let go of 3,600 workers, or about 70% of its workforce.
• TripAdvisor eliminated 600 roles in the U.S. and Canada, and 300 more in other countries, as part of a 25% workforce reduction; an undisclosed number were furloughed.
• ZipCar, a car rental company, laid off 20% of its 500 workers.
• WestJet Airlines Ltd. plans to lay off 1,700 pilots -- three-quarters of the cockpit roster -- as the company struggles with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
  About 700 pilots are slated to receive layoff notices effective May 1, with 1,000 more kicking in on June 1, depending on employee seniority, according to the Air Line Pilots Association.
  The layoffs come amid an ongoing collapse of global travel triggered by border shutdowns and tanking demand, with WestJet parking nearly three-quarters of its fleet and, like Air Canada, cancelling the vast majority of its flights through April and May.
  "Issuing layoffs, in response to this crisis, has always been a last resort for WestJet; however, the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry is colossal, and WestJet is making difficult but necessary decisions to right-size our airline to weather the crisis," a WestJet spokesperson wrote in an email.
  One week ago, WestJet announced it would bring back nearly 6,400 laid-off workers to its payroll using Ottawa's emergency wage subsidy program.

Airports

• Aviation support service company Prospect has let go over 100 workers and restaurant servicer company HMSHost laid off over 600 workers from from Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
• Miami International Airport concession vendors Global Miami Joint Venture and Airport Concessions Group collectively laid off 758 employees.
• Over 1,200 workers were laid off from OTG, which staffs restaurants and stores in New York City’s LaGuardia International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, along with New Jersey’s Newark International Airport.
• Workers have also been laid off from Philadelphia International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.