Wednesday 7 October 2015

Delta, Air France Aiming to Cut Jobs To Remain Viable


With cost cutting ruling the roost in the airline industry in Europe and Americas, it is clear that certain major players might not be all that well financially. Delta Airlines of US and Air France of France have recently announced job cuts to ensure that they remain viable. While Delta has been eyeing the top management positions and the salaried workers for meeting this end, Air France is cutting the fat at the lower rungs of organization.

Delta has seen a sluggish growth in revenues with only 3 and 1 percent hikes in the first and second quarters of this year as compared to last year. This has not been as per expectations and there has been a need to cut down on the costs by job cutting of regulars. While there is not so much of frenzy with this measure with Delta, the story has been different on the other side of Atlantic.

Air France labor unions resorted to violent measures by tearing off the shirts of two of Air France managers who had announced cutting down of costs by job-cutting. It is notable that the mega airlines of Europe- Lufthansa and Air France- have been battling the union strife for some years now on a number of issues. With soaring competition from the Gulf carriers on long haul flights and from low cost European carriers, the mega airlines of yesteryears have been feeling the squeeze. When the corrections are sought to be applied, it results in labor unrest. Recent strikes and violent methods have dented the image of these carriers worldwide which has resulted in curtailing of some routes, scaling down of operations and accumulating losses.


While the American airlines have been able to do a balancing act with cooperation from the unions and some deft handling of situation by top management, the same has not been seen in case of Europe. 

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