Showing pandemic's wrath on airlines, Cebu Pacific workforce slashed by 25% !-- --
recently, a victim of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)'s damage to the once blossoming travel sector, thanks to budget carriers like the Gokongwei-led airline. "As a breadwinner, I and my family lost the sense of security," she said in a Facebook post.
Patino was among the "more than 800 employees" to be completely retrenched by the company by August, following a "difficult but necessary decision" by the airline to cut its losses with most flights still grounded even after the government allowed non-essential travels this week. In a statement on Wednesday evening, Cebu Pacific said the new job cuts represented the outcome of its operational reviews that showed that amid the pandemic, and the uncertainty it brings to tourism, "it was clear that CEB was too big" as a firm to "fulfill its long-term commitment to provide affordable and accessible" flights.
"Rest assured that this process was undertaken with utmost transparency, sensitivity and responsibility to all CEB employees," the statement read. The latest number of people being let go marked the biggest so far for the company since March when COVID-19 spiraled into a pandemic.
In total, Charo Lagamon, Cebu Pacific's corporate communications director, said "roughly 25% of total workforce" of the airline. The 800 people losing jobs by next month add up to the 150 newly hired crew members who were no longer regularized last March.
Around 200 others were also offered "optional retirement" after their last day at work last
Flag carrier
There are no new developments in that regard," PAL spokesperson Ma.
Budget carriers, which gained popularity for their cheap flights, has banked on travel demand for years before the virus struck and kept everyone at home. For AirAsia Philippines, which just like Cebu Pacific is a budget airline, job cuts had so far been managed, albeit with difficulty.
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Cebu Pacific was likewise hoping for the same, but the Duterte government has been cool to any direct financial rescue on failing firms. "The stimulus would have bought time and saved jobs," Lagamon said.
In the first quarter, Cebu Pacific's balance sheet swung to a net loss of
© Pakistan Press International, source