Hong Kong Airlines will cut 250 flight attendants in the near future. This difficult decision was taken by a company that has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company made the decision to lay off for the umpteenth time. The airline, which is part of the China HNA Group, at the start of the pandemic, had already made layoffs and cut wages long before other airlines did.
The layoffs this time were announced by Hong Kong Airlines Service Director, Chris Birt to employees via a memo on Friday local time. The contents stated that the extended flight ban forced the company to make cuts.
“These ongoing adjustments not only drastically impact our revenues, but also reduce our operating crew and future staff requirements. After reviewing our mid-term cabin crew requirements, we have made the very difficult decision to permanently reduce the number of cabin crew. us, “said the memo quoted from SCMP, Sunday (13/12/2020).
Hong Kong Airlines Prepares Compensation Package
To confirm the layoffs, a spokesperson for Hong Kong Airlines said the company has prepared a compensation package offered to all laid-off cabin crew in accordance with the provisions and labor laws of the country.
The 250 laid-off cabin crew brought the number of flight attendants employed by the airline to reduce to 1,000. Prior to the pandemic, the airline employed 1,500 cabin crew. In total, the workforce reaches 2,300 staff, a 34% decrease.
About 400 workers across the company were laid off in February and nearly 170 of them were flight attendants. This is part of the company’s previous efforts to cut costs. The company also reduced the salaries of its more than 1,200 cabin crew by 30% over four months.
Meanwhile the pilots feel that their salaries and benefits have decreased by 60% over the past six months. Hong Kong Airlines pilots saw a two-fifth cut in base wages and benefits from March to September.
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