Japan Airlines (JAL) is to reduce its cabin crew workforce by more than 300 through a special early retirement scheme, in line with its efforts to cut costs and improve its weak financial position.
The Oneworld alliance carrier announced last year that it was seeking to reduce its workforce by 4,300 by March 2009 and that it was likely to do so in part through voluntary early retirement schemes.
It says now that 320 flight attendants applied for early retirement by a 21 December deadline and successful applicants will be leaving the airline either at the end of March or in September. It originally said up to 900 flight attendants were eligible for early retirement under the scheme.
JAL adds that this will lift to 1,200 the number of staff opting for early retirement through programmes introduced this fiscal year. In addition to the departing flight attendants, the carrier offered early retirement to ground staff in middle management positions last year and received 630 applications. It also offered early retirement to senior management staff and there were 250 applications.
“To secure smooth business operations and pass on skills and techniques, maintenance engineering staff and flight operations control staff have been excluded from the early retirement schemes,” it says.
Financially troubled JAL has been working to restructure its operations and to cut costs ahead of the opening of a new runway at Tokyo’s busy Haneda airport in 2010 which will enable new competitors to start challenging it.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
