American Airlines Group Inc is to notify 13,000 workers that they could be laid off due to the prolonged industry downturn if the COVID-19 situation does not improve and US government aid is not extended, the carrier said on Wednesday.
The airline expects to fly at least 45 percent less in the first quarter, the carrier’s executives said in a letter to employees, extending the industry slump as expectations for a travel recovery are delayed due to the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Of course, this is not where we want to be, and we will work with union leadership to do everything we can to mitigate job impact as much as possible,” American chief executive officer Doug Parker and president Robert Isom said in the letter.
Photo: Reuters
The airline no longer expects to be at full capacity this summer, they said.
“The vaccine is not being distributed as quickly as any of us believed, and new restrictions on international travel that require customers to have a negative COVID-19 test have dampened demand,” they added.
American’s announcement came after United Airlines Holdings Inc last week sent similar notices to 14,000 workers.
Parker and Isom said that they backed efforts by airline worker unions to win another round of support in the US Congress, with current federal aid set to expire on April 1. US President Joe Biden has proposed a US$1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, currently being discussed in Congress.
The company also plans to establish new programs to encourage early retirement or voluntary furloughs.
Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, American’s revenue fell 62 percent last year, and the airline reported an annual loss of US$8.9 billion.
In a quarterly earnings report released last week, the carrier said that it expected revenue this quarter to fall 60 to 65 percent compared with the same period last year.
American furloughed 19,000 workers in October last year after a prior round of US federal support expired, but brought the workers back after the US Congress enacted more federal support at the end of last year.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS