Tunisair wants govt backing to lay off 1,200 workers

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/>