American Airlines has told 25,000 workers they could be furloughed. What’s next?
American Airlines notified 25,000 employees Wednesday that they could be furloughed, as the Fort Worth-based company aims to become much smaller in response to the COVID economy.
The letters sent to the employees — many of whom live in North Texas — was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
American has already eliminated about 5,000 jobs, most of them in Fort Worth in response to the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.
In recent weeks, American has worked aggressively to get its planes and employees back up in the air, four months after the spread of the coronavirus led to a near-shutdown of air travel worldwide.
The notices were to be sent to employees in compliance with federal law, and don’t necessarily mean job cuts are imminent, officials have said.
The furloughs would affect employees across the company, including pilots, flight attendants, maintenance workers, fleet service and reservation workers.
In all, the cuts could amount to a workforce reduction of nearly 40%.
American is the largest employer in Dallas-Fort Worth, with more than 30,000 employees. Globally, the airline employs about 130,000 people.
American, which last year opened a new $300 million corporate campus in Fort Worth, has aggressively sought to get many of its flights up and running. DFW Airport, for example, is now operating at more than 50% of its pre-COVID capacity and is now considered the busiest airport in the world, according to figures from OAG, a flight data company.
But those flights are still just a fraction of what the air travel industry was like prior to March, when about 90% of air travel was halted as local and national governments scrambled to deal with the virus.
DFW Airport officials, who have temporarily shelved a $3.5 billion expansion — including the construction of a sixth passenger terminal, Terminal F — are forecasting that air traffic won’t return to 2019 pre-COVID levels until 2022 or perhaps 2023.
The Fort Worth-based airline forecasts that it will have 20,000 more employees than it needs in October.
Major airlines in the U.S. have all been awarded federal COVID financial assistance, and American’s portion is about $5.8 billion. But American officials have said furloughs could be needed when that aid runs out Oct. 1.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 6:11 PM.
