AirAsia Philippines to reduce 12% of its workforce due to COVID-19 impact

Budget carrier AirAsia Philippines said Friday it is letting go of hundreds of its workers due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the air transportation sector.

The airline said it is reducing its 2,200-strong workforce by 12% or roughly 260 workers to be laid off.

“The aviation industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. AirAsia Philippines is not an exception to this,” AirAsia Philippines said in a statement.

“Despite all our efforts to curb the effects of the pandemic, AirAsia has made the difficult decision of reducing the company’s workforce, but has done everything to keep the number of affected employees to a minimum, totaling 12% of all Filipino Allstars,” it said.

The airline cited its cost management efforts to reduce losses brought by the pandemic such as the voluntary salary sacrifice —ranging from 100% at the very top to 15% — by the management and senior employees of AirAsia Group.

AirAsia also announced it is set to gradually resume services in the Philippines on June 5 following the Philippine government’s directive of easing community quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and several parts of the country.

The following are the flight schedules opened by AirAsia:

- MDM, GMA News