(CNN Business) –– United Airlines has warned nearly half of its front-line workforce that it could receive its licensed suspensions this fall.
The world’s third-largest airline reported that 36,000 workers – including 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 boarding and customer service agents, 5,550 maintenance employees and 2,250 pilots – will receive layoff notices.
This Wednesday’s announcement portrays a image bleak about the recovery in air travel, just days after United announced it would beef up its flights in August. But, as the pandemic worsensa in some areas of U.S, travel bookings have started to drop again.
United has warned for months that it would cut thousands of jobs if travel doesn’t increase before October. So far, airline workers have largely been left out of job losses that have plagued other industries. The federal CARES law, enacted in March, offered billions of dollars in rescue funds to the sector and prohibited those companies that accepted the money from eliminating jobs, paying fees or making involuntary withdrawals.
That ban ends on October 1.
The notices were sent out this Wednesday because federal law requires employers to notify their workers 60 days before a mass layoff.
The airline operates only a quarter of flights compared to last year, a company executive said on Wednesday. And he added that those flights are, on average, 55% complete. “Involuntary withdrawals that we work so hard to avoid now are the last option left,” said the executive.
The president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 50,000 flight attendants on airlines like United, called the layoffs a “blow to the stomach.” But, “they are also the most honest assessment we’ve seen of the state of the industry,” union president Sara Nelson added in a statement.
The Airline Pilots Association noted in a letter to its United members that the union is still working to secure an “early departure package that mitigates layoffs by incentivizing pilots to leave early to avoid layoffs.” The organization said it expects those negotiations to end soon.
“This crisis outshines all others in aviation history and there is no end in sight,” said Nelson. She said the union will continue to work with airlines “to create voluntary options” with the goal of avoiding some involuntary withdrawals. Nelson also called on Congress to extend the CARES Act to save hundreds of thousands of airline jobs and “extend and expand it for all workers.”
United previously revealed in a presentation to employees that it would send layoff notices this month.
“Just because you get a WARNING notice doesn’t mean your job is being cut,” United told his workforce at the time. “However, it is a sign that your job could be affected by an involuntary retirement,” he added.
United insists that it has done everything possible to avoid the layoffs. Tens of thousands of employees took unpaid voluntary leave when the company began urge workers to do so.
Last month the company mortgaged its frequent flyer program for a bank loan, and at the time he said that with that money and federal bailout funds he would have $ 17 billion in cash on hand by the end of September, about three times the normal amount of cash he handles.
United and all other major US airlines have also filed requests for a new round of loans available under the CARES Act, according to ad the Treasury Department on Tuesday.
The airlines have already received $ 25 billion in aid from the first part of the law. This new round of loans could end up totaling another $ 25 billion, and airlines have until September 30 to decide to close the new loans. Delta, Southwest and United said Tuesday that they have yet to make a firm decision on whether they will need additional federal aid.
The airline says it is bleeding $ 40 million a day.
The United executive also noted that the airline is not confident that lawmakers will approve another round of support this election year, but that the company and union officials are in talks.
“We do not feel that we can count on the additional support of the federal government to survive, and we have to take measures to protect the company and protect the long-term interest of the company and the perspectives of United employees,” said the executive.
CNN Business’s Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
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