Emirates has no plans to reduce staff

dubai — Emirates airline has clarified that there is “no programme to reduce headcount”, following a Bloomberg report that dozens of employees have been laid off as it moves to streamline operations.

According to the Bloomberg report, sources said the airline is scaling back senior cabin crew and support personnel, including from administration and IT. The cuts reportedly began in the last few weeks and primarily affect middle and upper-level management.

In a statement, an Emirates spokesperson said “there is no change in staff turnover rates in the past few weeks.”

“We continuously review all areas of our operations as part of good business practice, including department structures and roles. This is no different from previous years,” the spokesperson said.

“Recruit has slowed down as we streamline our operations, introduce new technologies and find ways to better deploy existing resources internally.” “However, we continue to hire for critical roles,” the spokesperson added, noting that the airline employs an 103,000-strong workforce.

Several Gulf airlines have been forced to make changes to face challenges such as the US ban on travellers from a number of countries and low oil prices.

Etihad, for its part, has cut jobs as part of an organisational restructuring.

Meanwhile, Emirates has scaled back its five weekly flights to the Angolan capital Luanda to three due to the difficulty of repatriating revenue earned in the country.

— bernd@khaleejtimes.com