Emirates Group has become the latest airline to ask staff to take unpaid leave to alleviate the pressure from coronavirus, an email leaked to Reuters reveals.
The message claims the Dubai-owned airline has seen a “measurable slowdown” in business and has also asked workers to consider taking previously accrued paid holiday, too.
The move follows similar initiatives from a string of worldwide airlines such as Qantas, Singapore and EasyJet.
Reuters obtained the internal email and Emirates confirmed its authenticity.
It read, “A particular challenge for us right now is dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 [coronavirus].
“We’ve seen a measurable slowdown in business across our brands and a need for flexibility in the way we work.”
It asked staff who have “accrued a significant balance of annual leave” to take holiday, while also offering unpaid leave to employees in non-operational roles.
“In all cases, we strongly encourage you to take up this opportunity if you have the support and approval of your line manager,” the email said.
Emirates Group has more than 100,000 employees, including 21,000 cabin crew and 4,000 pilots.
Recently, the airline cancelled all flights to mainland China except to Beijing. It also cancelled flights to Iran.
Last week, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce announced a similar initiative, telling reporters, “The way we’ll manage it is to ask across the 30,000 [staff], for people to take annual leave, long-service leave and use their leave balances, which are quite considerable.”
