Saturday, August 8th 2020, 1:01 pm
More than 80,000 pilots, flight attendants and other airline workers face unpaid time off and an uncertain future as carriers attempt to navigate catastrophic losses stemming from COVID-19.
Beyond vacationers leery of traveling during a pandemic, major U.S. carriers have lost lucrative business travelers as the coronavirus continues its deadly spread, with a day of reckoning coming for tens of thousands of aviation industry workers in the fall.
As Delta Air Lines' CEO Ed Bastian declared after the Atlanta-based carrier reported a record adjusted quarterly loss of $2.8 billion last month: "I don't think we'll ever get back entirely to where we were in 2019 on the volume of business traffic."
About 17,000 employees, or 20% of Delta's workforce, left the company last week, either through buyout packages or by taking early retirement, according to the company.
The cutbacks are "a difficult but necessary step towards Delta's transformation into a smaller, more nimble airline that will be better positioned to endure the crisis and recover quickly," Bastian wrote in a memo to employees. "We will be guided in the second half of the year by our goal to eliminate our daily cash burn while improving customer satisfaction and building loyalty that will serve us when demand recovers."
Other carriers, also burning through millions in cash daily, have been notifying employees that furloughs are likely, with October 1 looming as an especially dark day for the industry. That's in large part because airlines that keep workers on their payroll through September 30 would not have to repay funds they received under the CARES Act, which include nearly $50 billion in support to U.S. airlines.
About 25,000 front-line workers at American Airlines could be furloughed October 1. However, the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier recently reached a deal with its 14,000-member pilots union to offer more leaves and early retirement packages to limit the coming carnage. It's also extending until August 12 a deadline for other workers to decide whether to take voluntary leave with reduced pay or early retirement.
United Airlines last month warned that almost half of its front-line workforce could be furloughed this fall. The airline's tally of 36,000 workers includes 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 customer service reps and gate agents, 5,550 maintenance employees and 2,250 pilots.
Such notifications are required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, and are not unexpected, especially in the current economic climate.
Alaska Airlines told CBS News it's sending notices of potential furloughs to 4,200 front-line employees, but expects the final count to be lower. About a third of Alaska Airlines' 3,100 pilots have opted to take voluntarily leave or early retirement, letting the carrier avoid pilot furloughs for now. Overall, Alaska Airlines plans to shrink its workforce by 35%, but market conditions could change the equation.
"We're making tough decisions to right-size Alaska Airlines for future success, but it means we're losing fantastic people. We must furlough some people, and those decisions are very difficult," an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said.
"We're in the midst of the biggest demand contraction in the history of our industry," Alaska Airlines President Ben Minicucci said on the airline's second quarter earnings call.
Other carrier considering cutbacks include:
While unions are lobbying for an extension of the Payroll Support Program adopted in the CARES Act passed in late March, it's unclear whether Congress will include airlines in the financial support package now being considered.
"Flight attendants and other aviation workers burned up congressional phone lines over the past week to gain support for a clean extension of the Payroll Support Program," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in an emailed statement.
"This provision is the most successful jobs program of COVID relief and maintains service to all of our communities," added Nelson, whose union represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines.
CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report.
First published on August 7, 2020 / 4:41 PM
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