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Emirates Resuming Flights to Six Cities; Implements Additional Wave of Layoffs

Emirates aircraft in Dubai (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Hisham Qadri)

For Emirates employees, it was a week of one step forward and two steps back. On a positive note, Emirates has announced that it will resume flights to six cities in the coming weeks. Sadly, the announcement comes as the carrier initiated more layoffs.

Emirates will begin flying to Geneva on July 15, 2020; Los Angeles on July 22, 2020; Dar es Salaam on August 1, 2020; both Prague and Sao Paulo on August 2, 2020; and Boston on August 15, 2020.

Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer at Emirates, said, “ We’ve seen an uptick in customer interest and demand since the announcement of Dubai’s re-opening, and also with the increased travel options that we offer as we gradually re-establish our network connectivity. We continue to work closely with all stakeholders to resume flight operations while ensuring that all necessary measures to safeguard the health and safety of our customers and employees are in place.”

According to Emirates, with these flight resumptions, their network will include 58 cities by the middle of August. Despite the announcement of flights returning to these cities, it appears the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet fully loosened its grip. This week, Emirates initiated another wave of layoffs.

This marks the third wave of layoffs for the carrier since May. In May, 180 pilots undergoing A380 training were laid off along with 400 trainee cabin crew.

Then in June, it was reported that the carrier let go of 600 pilots and 6,500 cabin crew. Emirates has not confirmed the number of layoffs in this latest wave, but it appears that about 800 pilots were let go most of whom operate the Airbus A380. Given that Emirates grounded its A380 fleet, this should come as no surprise.

It also appears that the layoffs include cabin crew, engineers, and ground staff. AirlineGeeks is attempting to get confirmation on the number and scope of the layoffs.

According to its website, Emirates had a total of 59,519 employees as of March 31, 2020.

Jordan Green

Author

  • Jordan Green

    Jordan joined the AG team in 2018 after attending AAviationDay in Philadelphia. He is actively pursuing his private pilot certificate and has been an aviation enthusiast since childhood. An attorney by trade, Jordan jokingly refers to himself as a “recovering litigator” and now focuses on subcontracts management. Jordan focuses his writing on innovations in commercial aviation, aviation history, and other interesting topics he feels are worthy of discussion in the community.

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