Air New Zealand Ltd yesterday said that it aims to cut up to 385 more cabin crew jobs due to a lack of long-haul international flying, which would take its COVID-19 related job losses to about 37 percent of its workforce.
The percentage figure is higher than the cuts to nearly 30 percent of jobs at Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd and about 20 percent at Singapore Airlines Ltd.
Air New Zealand said in a statement that it would need fewer cabin crew due to the decline in demand on North American routes, which had led it to reduce return flights to Los Angeles to three a week from once a day and convert San Francisco flights to cargo only.
Photo: Reuters
“In the foreseeable future, we have around 385 more widebody cabin crew in the business than we have work for,” an airline spokeswoman said. “Any decision we make will be made in consultation with our people and the unions, with redundancies as the last resort.”
E tu, the union representing flight attendants, said in a statement that the latest job cuts are proposed to be carried out by December.
It called on Air New Zealand to stop outsourcing work to a cabin crew hire company in Shanghai.
Air New Zealand declined to comment on the timing of the planned cuts.
The airline had announced 4,000 job losses before the latest proposal to cut cabin crew.
The airline last week said it would extend the grounding of its Boeing Co 777 fleet until at least September next year due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, although it has a fleet of Boeing 787-9s that it can use for long-haul flights.
Its prospects in the domestic market were boosted this week by the end of a requirement for physical distancing on flights that would allow it to sell all of the seats on an aircraft.
Air New Zealand on Tuesday said it would fly a domestic schedule of about 70 to 75 percent of normal levels.
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