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Coronavirus: Hong Kong Airlines to slash hundreds more jobs, focus on cargo in bid to survive pandemic
- The struggling carrier, long beset by cash-flow problems, will temporarily fly only eight Airbus A330 jets, with an emphasis on air freight
- The looming redundancies are just the latest in a series of cutbacks that have dramatically reduced the number of employees
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Hong Kong Airlines is preparing to cut hundreds of more jobs and temporarily carry only cargo on its passenger planes under its latest pandemic-survival plan, the Post has learned.
The new blueprint drawn up by the embattled all-Airbus airline calls for grounding its entire fleet of A320s with only eight A330 jets flying in the interim and prioritising cargo over passengers, according to two sources familiar with the plan.
Once positioned to challenge Cathay Pacific Airways, the airline has long been in the grips of a cash crisis that has engulfed both the company and its controlling shareholder, the now-bankrupt mainland China conglomerate HNA Group.
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The fresh cuts represent a further blow for anxious and weary staff, who have endured pay reductions of up to 60 per cent during the Covid-19 crisis. In December last year, the carrier cut 250 flight attendant jobs after culling 400 across various departments in February.
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This April, it offered exit packages to pilots, warning there was no guarantee their work visas would be renewed.
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