Kenya Airways pilots offer going on unpaid leave in jobs tussle

Kenya Airways pilots warned the carrier against cutting jobs and offered to go on unpaid leave to help mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the East African airline. The aviators will consider voluntary breaks only if it serves “to secure jobs” and cushion the airline “from further effects of the pandemic,” the Kenya Airlines Pilots Association said in a letter to Kenya Airways. The document was verified by the association’s CEO Murithi Nyagah. KALPA, as Kenya’s pilots association is known, is concerned that Kenya Airways might use the downtime caused by the virus to cut jobs as the government moves to fully take over the national carrier, according to the letter. Pilots and other employees of sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest airline already took pay cuts of as much as 75% after governments restricted flying to curb the spread of the virus. <br/>