Coronavirus: American Airlines to cut 25,000 jobs

• American Airlines sent out letters to its labor unions and systemwide workforce Wednesday announcing the airline needs to slash around 25,000 jobs across the company.
• The airline is asking employees to take early retirement and even a leave of absence that could last as long as two years.
• American said it needs to trim its payroll because of a worldwide drop in air travel and a reduced travel schedule because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
• Because the airline received billions of dollars in assistance early on in the pandemic in order to stay afloat, it cannot lay off anyone until October 1st as part of its terms of receiving funds from the Federal government.
• The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires by law companies like American to give their employees 60 days notice of layoffs, and FOX23 has confirmed a letter notifying unions about WARN notices is being given to them this week.
• Though cuts are coming to all work groups in the airline, cuts to maintenance workers are estimated to be around 3,200 systemwide. The bulk of the cuts right now is predicted to be from flight attendants.
• Carriers were hoping for a summer rebound in travel demand once things opened up, but the numbers have not rebounded as fast as hoped.

Cox Media Group