Quarantines around the world have affected all areas of the economy, the service sector; especially air transport is being severely affected. We are not just talking about damage to major shareholders. In this article, we expose the demand of airline employees, who are continuously under the uncertainty of staff cuts, a necessary measure to decrease costs of airlines trying to survive in the present crisis.
The aviation employment context in the Covid-19 pandemic
Although in this article we will focus on employees directly related to air transport, it is good to remember that the aviation industry involves several areas, such as airlines, aircraft manufacturers, airport personnel, suppliers of inputs to aircraft manufacturers, travel agencies, etc. Five Aero Consulting compiled a study where they estimate that job losses in the sector worldwide reach 350,000 dismissals, although they point out that it could easily be more than a half-million.
Only the airlines worldwide participate in the statistics with an approximate of 200,000 dismissals in the last months. As demand for flights continues to decline, Five Aero says that both airports and airlines may need to increase layoffs to minimize their cost margin. Rowland Hayler, co-founder of the consultancy, comments: “Given the importance of the sector that supports all types of businesses, job losses are also a disaster for the economy as a whole”. If you want to know more about the impact of Covid-19 on aviation, you can read our article Statistics from the Airports Council International (ACI) on the impact of Covid-19 on the sector.
Demand from European employees
Workers in the aviation sector are aware that, if protocols in the air service are not changed, their livelihood from passenger traffic will be exhausted for most of them. Therefore, their interest is to ensure, together with public policies an infection-free service for users and a safe and sustainable job for them. You can read more about post-Covid-19 measures to ensure a contamination-free service in the article Social distancing during commercial flights.
Last Friday, September 18, workers from the aviation and tourism industries joined together to express their demand to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in which they ask her to lead the initiative to coordinate efforts to encourage flights, save the industries in the sector, recover the jobs lost and secure those that are in force.
Both associations and unions representing some 5,000 tourism and commercial aviation companies, made public a document in which they make known their demands, which consist of urgently coordinating criteria among the 27 member countries of the European Union, as well as the countries associated with the Schengen area. Under the slogan “Yes to the Covid-19 test, no to quarantine”, employees in the commercial aviation sector consider that travel and its scheduling should continue and return to normal activity; taking preventive hygiene measures, instead of establishing quarantines that affect their work sector.
What do you think about this subject? What other measures do you think could help the labor aspect of commercial aviation?
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Image by Dimitris Vetsikas via Pixabay under Creative Commons license.
