Index – Economy – Brussels Airlines sacks 1,000 employees

Thousands of Belgian airlines Brussels Airlines will be fired, citing the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic, MTI wrote in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. The company said in a statement Tuesday that this is an essential step in ensuring the company’s survival, as the crisis has had an extremely negative impact on the company’s finances and demand for air travel remains very limited.

Brussels Airlines, a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa, employs around 4,000 people, the announcement affects a quarter of the employees. According to the decision, the company will also divest 30 percent of its aircraft fleet, reducing the number of its European flights from 16 of the 54 aircraft, from 39 to 30 and from 10 to 8 long-haul flights.

According to press reports, the company had already planned a restructuring before the epidemic to improve its profitability, after a net loss of 40.6 million euros in 2019. The loss due to the epidemic has so far reached 1 million euros per day. Forecasts show that demand for Brussels Airlines flights could drop as much as 30 percent next year, and the airline can only be profitable again after 2023.

The Belgian government is negotiating a € 290 million aid package with the management of Brussels Airlines under the framework of temporary EU support in response to the epidemic.