Despite relentless consolidation in the European airline industry over many years, few national carriers have disappeared entirely. Hungary’s Malev went bust earlier this year. Belgium’s Sabena is long gone. But most live on even if they have been absorbed by bigger rivals.
Still, rarely has the pressure to cut costs to save national carriers proved so intense.
Scandinavian airline SAS announced a last-ditch restructuring plan Monday, based on cutting jobs and salaries in return for extended credit from its banks and government shareholders, just days after British Airways IAG.MC -0.93% parent International Consolidated Airlines Group PLC said 4,500 jobs will go at Iberia as it tries to rescue its Spanish business.
Air France-KLM SA AF.FR +3.01%, under whose wing shelters Alitalia, has similarly embarked on deep cost cuts to turn around its French operations, as has Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa LHA.XE +1.10%, which owns Swiss and Austrian Airlines.
So where does the European airline industry’s future lie?
Choosen excerpts by JMM from
via What Next for Europe’s Airlines? – The Source – WSJ.
SAS | To cut nearly 6,000 jobs
Loss-making airline SAS will shed nearly 6,000 staff through cuts and asset sales to secure loans from banks and Nordic governments to help it survive a global downturn and fierce competition. SAS (SAS.ST), one of the European flag-carriers being squeezed by discount carriers such as Ryanair (RYA.I) and Norwegian (NWC.OL), has not made a full-year … Continue reading »
Iberia | IAG to cut 4,500 jobs
International Airlines Group warned on Friday that its Spanish carrier Iberia was ‘‘in a fight for survival’’ and unveiled a restructuring plan to cut 4,500 jobs as it reported a drop in third-quarter profit. Iberia CEO Rafael Sanchez-Lozano said the carrier is losing money in all its markets and was ‘‘burning €1.7 million ($2.17 million) … Continue reading »
Lufthansa : Threat of wage cuts and layoffs
At a press conference in Frankfurt last Thursday the CEO of Lufthansa, Christoph Franz, announced details for the long-planned restructuring of the company. From 2013 onwards Lufthansa will transfer all of its Europe-Germany flights—with the exception of those from Frankfurt and Munich—to the subsidiary company it formed ten years ago, German Wings. German Wings will … Continue reading »
UPDATE – Lufthansa | No more rumored : 3,500 jobs cut
Lufthansa to cut 3,500 jobs Lufthansa on Thursday unveiled plans to cut 3,500 jobs as it reported a worse than expected operating loss of €381m in the first quarter of 2012. Analysts had been expecting a loss of €273m for the three months to March 31 but were reassured by how Europe’s largest airline by … Continue reading »
Lufthansa | Still evaluating but 3,000 job cuts rumored
Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it was still evaluating how many jobs it would cut in a cost-reduction programme, in response to a report that Germany’s biggest airline plans to axe about 3,000 administrative jobs. German mass-circulation paper Bild earlier reported that Lufthansa planned to cut half of a total of 6,000 administrative jobs around the … Continue reading »
Air France – 5,000 jobs to be cut by 2013
French airline Air France has announced it is to cut more than 5,000 jobs by the end of 2013 in an attempt to reduce costs and return to growth. The figure represents just under 10% of the total workforce of 53,000. The job cuts form part of a restructuring plan to restore profitability, in the …Continue reading »
Airbus workers in France seek jobs guarantee – New Alabama plant should create about 2,500 construction jobs
Airbus should create about 2,500 construction jobs to build a new US$600 million airliner assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, and 400 to 500 full-time jobs once production starts in 2017, a source familiar with the plans said on Saturday. The European planemaker, owned by EADS, is poised to announce plans to build the plant for … Continue reading »
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