Emirates lets dozens of employees go

Emirates is letting go of dozens of employees as the Persian Gulf carrier continues a push to streamline after years of rapid growth, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The world’s biggest long-haul airline is scaling back senior cabin crew as well as the support department workforce including administration and IT, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The cuts at Emirates, which froze hiring last summer and hasn’t taken on new crew in months, began in the last few weeks and affect middle and upper-level managers, they said. Emirates said there is no company-wide program to reduce headcount and that “there is no change in staff turnover rates in the past weeks.” The carrier continues to hire for “critical roles,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed response to questions, noting that “recruitment has slowed down as we streamline our operations, introduce new technologies, and find ways to better deploy existing resources internally.” Emirates Group, which includes the airline and other travel and tourism entities, increased its workforce 11% in the fiscal year ended March 31 to more than 105,000 employees.<br/>