Due to existing and new international measures and travel restrictions, KLM will further their organizational restructuring to include between 800 and 1,000 additional redundancies.
On Thursday (January 21, 2021), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced that they will further their organizational restructuring. The company implemented 5,000 redundancies last year and due to the delay of long-haul recovery in the industry, new and existing international measures, and travel restrictions, the company will reduce their workforce by an additional 800-1,000 positions. The added redundancies will include approximately 500 full time equivalents (FTEs) in cabin crew, 100 pilots, and between 200-400 ground positions. In total, the company will have reduced the total number of jobs by nearly 6,000 since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In Thursday’s announcement, KLM’s CEO, Pieter Elbers, said,
“In July 2020, we announced that 5,000 of our colleagues would have to leave KLM, after which we engaged with intensive consultation and cooperation with all social partners. Various instruments were made available as part of a social plan. These adjustments were very painful, but successful. I have every faith we will resolve these new challenges together once more.
The further downsizing of our organization does not yet encompass the latest measures announced by the Dutch government in the past 48 hours. These new measures are, however, in line with the restrictions and dynamics we have had to contend with since the start of the pandemic. Even if our crewmembers are exempt from the new regulations, the further loss of jobs will regrettably be inevitable. The impact of the latest measures will become evident in due course.”
Source: KLM