A dozen Kenyans working for award-winning airline Emirates are among hundreds who are set to lose their jobs in the latest restructuring by the airline due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Emirates in response to private queries by Business Daily on the number of Kenyans laid off remained non-committal only saying that the decision was as a result of hard times due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to right-size our workforce in line with our reduced operations”, the airline stated.
In March 2019, Emirates had a workforce of over 100,000 employees – 700 cabin crews, 4, 000 pilots among others.
About 600 pilots and 700 cabin crew members could be sent home according to Arabian Business Magazine.
The group had more than 100,000 employees, including more than 21,000 cabin crew and 4,000 pilots, at the end of March 2019.
“This was a very difficult decision and not one that we took lightly,” Emirates added saying they will give the affected workers all possible support.
Emirates also promised to always protect its workers whenever they can.
“Where we are forced to take tough decisions we will treat people with fairness and respect.”
Upon resumption of flights to Kenya, Emirates has announced a 29.4 percent discount in ticket prices.