Qantas Airlines asks 2,500 employees to take unpaid leave

The Qantas airline announced on Tuesday that it would ask 2,500 of its employees to take unpaid leave, a measure intended to cope with a decline in activity following a new wave of Covid-19 in the country.

Pilots, crew members and airport employees of Qantas and its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar will be placed on unpaid leave from mid-August and for an estimated two months, the company said.

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" said General Manager Alan Joyce in a statement.

Almost 100% of its domestic flights were operating in May, Qantas said, but restrictive measures linked to the outbreak of an epidemic wave in the country brought that percentage down to less than 40% in July.

Sydney's borders are set to remain closed for another month or two

Most of the affected employees are based in New South Wales, a state largely affected by the emergence of numerous cases of the coronavirus.

Containment of the country's largest city, Sydney, has entered its sixth week and is expected to last at least a month longer.

The country's third largest city, Brisbane, is also on lockdown, while other states have only recently lifted similar measures.

Qantas and Jetstar have already placed thousands of international flight attendants on unpaid leave since early 2020, with Australia's borders remaining closed to most foreign travelers.

The flagship of Australian aviation has said that employees will be paid for two weeks before the entry into force of this provision.

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," Joyce said.

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Qantas, which in 2020 recorded a collapse of its turnover of 11 billion Australian dollars (6.85 billion euros) during the year 2020, has drastically reduced its costs, by pinning devices to the ground and by carrying out a restructuring plan.