United Airlines will lay off 36,000 employees. It’s nearly half its entire U.S. staff.
United said Wednesday they hope to limit layoffs by offering early retirement to some but the 36,000 number is a ‘worst-case scenario.’ A notice was sent to employees in July to comply ahead of a 60-day warning ahead of the massive job cuts.
United Airlines employees nearly 95,000 employees.
The layoffs will reportedly include 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 customer service and gate agents, 5,50 maintenance workers, and 2,250 pilots. Layoffs would take place on or soon after October 1st. The company hopes to offer early retirement to a number of employees.
United officials said the notice covered 45 percent of their national staff based in the U.S.
Flight attendants Union along with other airline groups are in the middle of lobbying members of Congress to approve another $25 billion relief to protect airline jobs, through next March.
Airlines saw traffic grind to a halt in March after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but since have been making a slow recovery. As of July 4th, traffic was still down roughly 70 percent for the same period in 2019.
