DUBAI: Emirates airline will start paying its employees’ full salaries from October, over six months after slashing pay when the Dubai carrier had to suspend flights as the coronavirus pandemic prompted a closure of international borders.
At least two Emirates employees told UAE national daily Gulf News that on Sept. 3 they received a letter from the company explaining that their wages would be restored to pre-COVID levels.
But the allowances of staff and managers in certain categories will be cut according to the memo, the employees added.
Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways meanwhile extended the period of reduced pay for their staff until the end of the year, a spokeswoman for the carrier said on Sunday.
Employees will have their salaries reduced by 10 percent from September until the end of December, she said, compared to an earlier cut of between 25 percent and 50 percent which ended last month.
An Emirates spokesperson told Arab News the airline still had fewer staff, but declined to confirm how many had been laid off during since the start of the pandemic.
Emirates president Tim Clark earlier told BBC that the Dubai airline would increase the job cuts to as much as 15 percent of its workforce, having already released 10 percent. The carrier employed more than 60,000 staff before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Arab News understands there are no plans to recruit, despite Emirates’ plans to return to a full schedule by next year, the spokesperson told Arab News.
Etihad and Emirates have asked employees to take months of voluntary unpaid leave.
The Dubai carrier is now flying to 84 destinations after reopening services to Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja this week. Emirates earlier resumed flights to Jordan’s capital city, Amman, widening its Middle East reach to eight cities.
Emirates on May 21 resumed regular passenger flights to nine destinations – London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne – after earlier running mostly repatriation flights.
