American Airlines begins furloughs for 19,000 workers, as deadline passes
American Airlines on Thursday began the process of furloughing up to 19,000 workers, as the deadline for obtaining further federal assistance passed without Congress reaching a deal.
The move won’t be a surprise to the pilots, flight attendants, maintenance workers, mechanics and other employees, all of whom have known about the furloughs since mid-summer, officials at the Fort Worth-based airline said.
In all, at least 40,000 American Airlines workers — about 30% of the Fort Worth-based company’s work force — have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, officials say.
Leaders in Congress are continuing to negotiate an extension of the Payroll Support Program under the CARES Act, but as of Thursday no deal had been reached.
In a letter to employees Wednesday, American chairman and chief executive officer Doug Parker said he had been assured that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were still negotiating and a deal could be reached within days.
“Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that any of these efforts will come to fruition. However, in an effort to encourage cooperation and keep hope alive for our team, I informed the Secretary that if these efforts to extend PSP are successful over the next few days, we will reverse our furlough processes and recall any impacted team members,” Parker wrote.
“I am extremely sorry we have reached this outcome. It is not what you all deserve,” he said.
The airline’s corps of 27,000 flight attendants has been hit hardest — with 8,100 on furlough, 4,500 on voluntary leave and 2,700 who took a voluntary early out package during the summer.
Of 15,000 pilots, 1,600 were to be furloughed and 700 places on voluntary leave. Another 1,200 took a voluntary early out package. The numbers include employees at American Airlines and its American Eagle regional subsidiaries, including Envoy Air, PSA Airlines Inc. and Peidmont Airlines Inc.
Also affected are 800 maintenance workers, 2,225 employees in fleet services, 1,275 in passenger services, 150 dispatch workers and 12 flight crew training and simulator instructors, according to a federal SEC 8-K paper filed in August.
Overall, American Airlines is shrinking its work force from about 140,000 people as recently as March 1 to about 100,000 people worldwide effective Thursday.
The airline has received $4.1 billion in grants and loans totaling roughly $7 billion under the CARES Act to prevent furloughs up to this point.
Company officials didn’t elaborate on how many of the lost jobs are in North Texas, but the impact is likely to be huge locally. American boasted roughly 33,000 employees in the Dallas-Fort Worth region prior to the COVID crisis.
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 5:21 PM with the headline "American Airlines begins furloughs for 19,000 workers, as deadline passes."
