United plans to furlough up to 36,000 workers, or just under half of its US workforce, as it contends with a pandemic that has decimated demand for air travel. The company Wednesday said it would send furlough warning notices to 15,100 flight attendants, 11,000 in airport operations and 2,250 pilots. Other affected employees include catering, aeroplane mechanics, flight network operators and call centre customer service representatives. Not everyone who received a notice would be furloughed, United said. The company and unions representing pilots and flight attendants are attempting to increase participation in voluntary leave and early retirement programmes. The airline expects to take a $300m charge in the second quarter related to voluntary employee terminations, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. “Our primary goal throughout this crisis has been to ensure United — and the jobs it supports — are here when customers are flying again,” the company said. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents United’s flight attendants, said the airline’s “projected furlough numbers are a gut punch, but they are also the most honest assessment we’ve seen on the state of the industry”.<br/>
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United and American Airlines have suspended their flights to Hong Kong again after concerns were raised over the mandatory testing of aircrew for Covid-19. The sudden cancellation of the relaunched United service comes from concerns raised by the company’s pilots union over the way testing for the coronavirus was conducted in Hong Kong. Politico reported that American had decided to halt its services to Hong Kong until at least August 5, citing the new testing rules, according to a memo sent by the Allied Pilots Association to its members. Over the past two days, 38 people have been confirmed as being infected with the disease in Hong Kong. Of those, most have involved local cases, and some patients had no travel history and no identifiable source of infection. A United spokesman said: “UA877 was cancelled due to recent changes in testing protocol at HKG. United flights to and from HKG are suspended through July 10 (westbound). We are currently assessing how this impacts our future operations.” UA877 was scheduled to depart San Francisco for Hong Kong on July 8.<br/>
South African Airways cleared another hurdle needed to ensure the state-owned carrier’s survival when most labour groups agreed to sweetened severance packages for retrenched workers. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Airways Cabin Crew Association, which were fiercely opposed to plans to cut the workforce to 1,000 staff from about 4,700, agreed to fresh terms including unpaid training courses for some of the staff beyond their departure, the government said in a statement late Tuesday. The cost to the state of reducing SAA’s workforce will remain at just over 2.2b rand ($129m), but the carrier itself will need to find as much as 56m rand more to cover annual pension and medical-aid costs for 1,000 workers put on the re-skilling program, according to a revised rescue plan published by the airline’s administrators Wednesday. The agreement represents an important breakthrough before a July 14 meeting, when SAA creditors, unions and other groups will vote on a revival plan designed to ensure the loss-making carrier’s survival. The alternative is for SAA to be put into liquidation, shuttering an 86-year-old airline that many in government see as vital to international trade and tourism despite its need for repeated bailouts. SAA’s main champion in government is Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, but he faces opposition from Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, who would need to approve the extra funding needed for the carrier’s latest relaunch. <br/>
The Tata group is the only bidder in the fray for national carrier Air India with just a month left for the final bidding date. The Tata group, which already has a footprint in the airlines business, has shown interest in acquiring Air India, which at one point of time was under the Tata umbrella. The other bidders will be known in due course as globally airlines are under severe stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant disruptions on air travel and tourism. The Tata group is likely to go ahead with the bid while its joint venture airlines, SIA, has declined to join the Air India bid due to COVID-19 woes. The group is currently doing due diligence for the airlines. The last date for bidding is August 31 and the government is not in favour of extending the deadline. From Tata Airlines and Air India to Vistara and AirAsia India, the Tata group has been an important part of the growing aviation sector in India.<br/>