Air Canada temporarily lays off 5,100 cabin crew: report

Air Canada is temporarily laying off 5,100 cabin crew as the coronavirus hits its business, forcing it to ground aircraft and take significant capacity out of its network. Without confirming staff cuts, Air Canada said Friday: “In light of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 global crisis and Air Canada’s significantly reduced network, Air Canada has initiated discussions with its unions to begin placing employees on temporary, off-duty status. Employees would be returned to active duty status when we ramp up our network schedule as conditions allow. We do not have final numbers of total employees affected yet or details on timing as we are working through mitigation programs with each union,” the airline says. <br/>