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American Airlines said it will lay off 19,000 employees in October when the protections on those jobs as a condition for federal aid expire, CNBC reports.
Why it matters: The cuts come amid mass layoffs industrywide for air travel, which has seen demand plummet amid the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines that received help from the government are barred from laying people off until Sept. 30.
- With the new cuts, American will have shed some 40,000 people from the 140,000-person workforce it had before the pandemic began, per CNBC.
- Delta Airlines said Monday it will furlough 2,000 of its 11,000 pilots by Oct. 1, and United Airlines said in July it would furlough 36,000 employees by the same date.
What they're saying: “We have come to you many times throughout the pandemic, often with sobering updates on a world none of us could have imagined,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and president Robert Isom wrote in a note announcing the cuts to staff.
- “Today is the hardest message we have had to share so far — the announcement of involuntary staffing reductions effective Oct. 1.”