On July 15, 2020, American Airlines informed approximately 25,000 US-based employees of American and its affiliates of the possibility of a workforce reduction at their work location as part of American’s response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
American expects that these actions, if any, will take effect on or after October 1, 2020 – at the end of the payroll support program funding – and may continue through the end of 2020.
In a letter to employees, Doug Parker and Robert Isom, said: “We hate taking this step, as we know the impact it has on our hardworking team members. From the time the CARES Act was signed in March, we had a stated goal of avoiding furloughs because we believed demand for air travel would steadily rebound by Oct. 1 as the impact of COVID-19 dissipated. That unfortunately has not been the case. Our passenger revenues in June, while we believe are better than others in the industry, were more than 80% lower than June 2019. And with infection rates increasing and several states reestablishing quarantine restrictions, demand for air travel is slowing again. As a result, we currently anticipate having over 20,000 more team members on payroll than we will need to operate our smaller schedule this fall.”
The airline has rolled out a voluntary program of extended leave for 15, 18 or 24 months, as well as an early-out offering for employees with 10 years of service.
Hardest hit are flight attendants, which have been issued with 9,950 WARN notices, but the layoffs will be seen throughout all sectors of American’s workforce, from pilots (2,500 notices) to fleet service provider (4,500) and maintenance workers (3,200).