Delta started shuffling its management this week as the slimmed-down airline adjusts to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 17,000 Delta employees — close to a fifth of its pre-pandemic staff — accepted buyouts or early retirement packages over the summer. Now the airline is rethinking where it needs to bulk up and trim, but the goal isn’t to reduce overall headcount, said spokesman Morgan Durrant. The move will affect dozens of managers. It could include moving people to departments like Delta’s Global Cleanliness Division, which it established in June in response to the virus, and other areas related to the daily operation of the airline. Employees can apply for new jobs or take buyouts. “As Delta becomes a smaller, more nimble and more efficient company, we are realigning salaried employee staffing,” Durrant said. “This includes filling critical roles left open as a result of recent retirements and departures and realigning roles to accelerate key business priorities. Salaried employees whose role has been impacted may apply for an open role or choose a comprehensive voluntary exit package.” Late last month, Delta said it was shifting some functions to other executives after COO Gil West retired. Delta is scheduled to report Q3 results before the market opens Tuesday.<br/>
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KLM could have its wings clipped after Greenpeace said Wednesday a court would hear its lawsuit next month against the government's multi-billion-euro bailout package for the Dutch airline. The Netherlands in June said it would give the beleaguered national carrier 3.4 billion euros in aid as governments around the world stepped up to help airlines which have suffered from travel restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. But Greenpeace has opposed the bailout because it said KLM is operating without a solid climate action plan and the Dutch government's aviation policy is inadequate. After the government rebuffed calls to tighten conditions on the bailout package, Greenpeace went forward with the lawsuit and said the case is set to be heard on November 18. "The 'green conditions' that the government has set for state aid for KLM are flimsy and nothing but window-dressing," said Dewi Zloch, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace Netherlands. KLM's aid package consists of a guarantee for bank loans of up to E2.4b and a direct loan from the state of up to one billion euros. The airline said previously the government loan was linked to "commitments to sustainable development" but it did not give further details. Greenpeace in particular wants government to introduce a CO2 emissions ceiling for KLM which should then be reduced every year.<br/>
A decision on whether Alitalia will have to pay back millions of euros in state aid is not far off, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday. “A decision is not too far in the calendar because we have worked this case a lot,” Vestager told a news conference. Italy has decided to renationalise the loss-making airline after 11 difficult years as a private company and three failed restructuring attempts. In 2017 Rome granted a bridge loan worth E900m ($1b), which has not been paid back, and at the beginning of this year it pumped in a further E400m.<br/>