Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, is laying off more employees in another round of redundancies, joining its global peers in becoming leaner to cope with the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated air travel demand.
The development comes as the International Air Transport Association issued a warning on Tuesday that airlines around the world would suffer record losses this year as a result of a crisis with "no comparison".
"Given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to right size our workforce in line with our reduced operations," an Emirates spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
"After reviewing all scenarios and options, we deeply regret that we have to let some of our people go. This was a very difficult decision and not one that we took lightly."
Emirates, which employs more than 60,000 people, did not reveal the number of staff it let go or specify the departments that would be affected.
The job cuts come after a previous round of lay offs that were announced on May 31 by Emirates and Dubai Media Office.
In March, the Dubai government pledged to support Emirates financially to help the state-owned airline, given its strategic importance to the economy and its role in transforming Dubai into a global travel hub.
Emirates has reduced wages and grounded most of its passenger fleet to preserve cash during the crisis that has resulted in massive losses for the aviation industry worldwide.
Global airlines will suffer a record net loss of $84.3 billion (Dh309.6bn) this year, more than double the $31bn loss incurred during the 2008 global financial crisis, according to the latest forecast made on Tuesday by Iata.
"The losses this year will be the biggest in aviation history," Alexandre de Juniac, director general of Iata, told reporters on a web conference call.
"There is no comparison for the dimension of this crisis."
Airlines' annual loss will narrow to about $15.8bn in 2021, the industry body representing about 280 operators said.
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