unaligned

Tunisia’s state airline wants to lay off 1,200 workers to ease financial difficulties which have led to flight delays and the grounding of aircraft due to lack of spare parts, its CE said Friday. Tunisair, which has a fleet of 30 aircraft, employs 8,000 staff. By comparison Morocco’s state-owned Royal Air Maroc, which has more than 50 aircraft, has some 3,300 workers. “The company is suffering from major financial difficulties because of the high number of workers and the wage bill of the company,” said CE Elyess Mankabi. “We’ve proposed to lay off 1,200 workers and we await the government’s approval for this program, which will help the company ease its financial burden and get out of its crisis,” he said. "In all parts of the world, each plane is supposed to have about 80 employee but at Tunisair, each plane has 165 workers, which is hitting the company’s balance sheets,” Mankabi said. The company has been suffering losses since the ousting of autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 sent Tunisia into turmoil, deterring tourists and investors.<br/>

Low-cost Norwegian Air is interested in operating domestic flights within Brazil, a government official said Thursday, as it plans its debut in Latin America’s largest economy in March with a flight between Sao Paolo and England. The airline’s interest was made public by Brazil’s tourism minister Vinicius Lummertz, who said Norwegian can start operating international flights with approval earlier this month from Brazilian flights regulator Anac. Norwegian has not specified the destination in England. Foreign airlines cannot incorporate in Brazil, but Congress is reviewing a proposal to change the law. If approved, Lummertz said, Norwegian could slash domestic flight costs by half. <br/>